DMA candidate Bekah Simms receives JUNO nomination for Classical Composition of the Year!
Composer Bekah Simms is having a very good year. A Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) candidate in composition at the Faculty of Music, Bekah released her debut album impurity chains to critical acclaim last fall, co-won, with Rebekah Cummings, the 2018 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, and can now add JUNO nominee to her list of accomplishments! Simms’ work Granitic is nominated in the Classical Composition of the Year category, along with Faculty of Music alumnus Vincent Ho for Arctic Symphony.
The 48th annual JUNO Award nominations were announced in late January and include a dozen nods for members of the U of T Music community.
For the past year the Gryphon Trio have been busy celebrating a milestone - 25 years together! Throughout those years faculty members Annalee Patipatanakoon and Jamie Parker, along with Roman Borys, have become well acquantainted with Canada's music awards, racking up nine nominations and two awards for Classical Album of the Year. In 2019 the Gryphons are double nominees for The End of Flowers (Solo or Chamber) and Into the Wonder (Large Ensemble) by alumnus Jordan Pal with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Post.
Saxophonist Mike Murley, currently on leave from his role as professor and area head of Jazz Studies, received his third nomination in a row for Jazz Album of the Year: Group, having won for Twenty (with Metalwood) in 2017 and The North, with David Braid, in 2018. This year’s contender Live at U of T by the Liebman/Murley Quartet is an all-U of T affair with fellow jazz faculty Jim Vivian and Terry Clarke, and visiting artist Dave Liebman.
“The result of this collaboration is a recording that I believe truly captures the spirit and spontaneity of live jazz in an intimate setting.”
- Mike Murley
Produced during the 2017-18 academic year, Live at U of T was recorded in the Faculty’s Upper Jazz Studio by Aaron Landsberg, a graduate of the first class of the Master in Music Technology and Digital Media program, and mixed and mastered by award-winning engineer Jeff Wolpert, a professor in the program.
Also receiving nominations following wins last year are alumna Barbara Hannigan and piano faculty David Braid, both for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral.
In all, University of Toronto Faculty of Music students, faculty and alumni received a total of 12 nominations across six categories. View the full list (PDF) and listen to the Faculty of Music JUNO Nominees 2019 playlist on Spotify.
Congratulations to all the nominees - we wish you continued success and will be cheering you on at the JUNO Awards on March 17!
Visit the JUNOs website for all of this year’s nominees.
Thank you to Tyler Greenleaf, Alumni Development Officer, Faculty of Music, for compiling the list of nominees.
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