Adrian Berry and Sami Anguaya receive Faculty's top honours

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June 23, 2022

The Faculty of Music is pleased to announce that Adrian Berry and Sami Anguaya and  are the winners of the William and Phyllis Waters and Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Awards, respectively. These awards, both established in 2005, are the largest given by the Faculty of Music with a prize of $25,000.00 each. The competitive application process includes a student submission outlining future plans and how the award will assist with career development, and letters of recommendation from faculty members.

Sami Anguaya
Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award

Composer, singer, and songwriter Sami Anguaya is a two-time graduate in composition from the University of Toronto. This year, Sami was the composer-in-residence for the University of Toronto Wind Ensemble and has been commissioned numerous times over his young career. As a Kichwa-Canadian composer, Sami has great interest in meaningfully bridging Indigenous Kichwa music elements with Western art music. In the future, Sami hopes to record a new composition with an all Kichwa ensemble in Otavalo, Ecuador that fuses a choir with a traditional flauta ensemble. Sami is also currently working on a new piece for the Toronto Chamber chorus Sehnsucht which will premiere in August 2022.

Hear Sami’s music on SoundCloud.

Adrian Berry
William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award

Music Technology and Digital Media graduate Adrian Berry works across performance, composition, music production, videography, and visual programming. Prior to moving to Toronto from the United States to study, Adrian toured North America and Europe as a saxophonist and vocalist in the rock and punk scenes. Since 2021, Adrian has been a research assistant for the arts-based participatory research project Sustainable pARTnerships: Collaboration and Reciprocity in Creative Cities, which commissions GTA-based artists to create original works about life as arts workers and imagined post-pandemic futures. Adrian’s thesis project, the multimedia Gold Cove ∈ RITUAL, exemplifies their creative output, blurring the disciplinary lines between music video production, ethnofiction, and cinematic storytelling.

Visit Adrian’s website or Instagram @hello_gold_cove to explore more of their work.

We are very pleased to announce three additional graduates are receiving smaller awards. Congratulations to:

  • Laurel Forshaw – Ph.D. in Music Education;
  • Alex Hetherington – Master of Music in Opera;
  • Ines Wong – Bachelor of Music, Comprehensive Studies

"Congratulations to all the recipients of our graduating awards. In all candidates, we saw clear evidence of an emerging professional career, and we hope that this endorsement will facilitate their continued success and achievement. We look forward to following their careers and wish them well on their next chapter." - Prof. Ryan McClelland, Associate Dean, Academic & Student Affairs

Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award

2021 – Katharine Petkovski (MMus Composition 2021, BMus 2019)
2020 – Andrew Ascenzo (DMA 2020, MMus 2011, BMusPerf Cello 2009)
2019 – Parisa Sabet (DMA Composition 2019, MMus 2014)
2018 – Joel Allison (MMus Opera 2018)
2017 – Younggun Kim (DMA Piano Performance 2017)
2016 – Emily D’Angelo (BMusPerf Voice 2016)
2015 – Charles Sy (MMus Opera 2015, BMusPerf Voice 2013)
2014 – Alexandra Smither (BMusPerf Voice 2014)
2013 – Andrew Haji (MMus Opera 2013, BMusPerf Voice 2011)
2012 – Riho Maimets (MMus Composition 2012)
2011 – Leslie Ann Bradley (MMus Voice Performance 2011, OpDip 2002, BMusPerf Voice 2000)
2010 – Lindsay Barrett (OpDip 2010)
2009 – Christopher Ku (MA Music 2009, BMus 2007)
2008 – Lucille Mok (BMus 2008)
2007 – Christopher Donnelly (MMus 2007 Jazz Piano, BMusPerf Jazz Piano 2005)
2006 – Ryan Jackson (BMusPerf Organ 2006)

William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award

2021 – Carol Mak (BMus 2021)
2020 – Kai Leung (BMus Composition 2020)
2019 – Bekah Simms (DMA Composition 2019, MMus 2015)
2018 – Elaine Choi (DMA Choral Conducting 2018, MMus Choral Conducting 2010, BMus 2008)
2017 – Matthew Emery (MMus Composition 2017)
2016 – Bianca Chambul (BMusPerf Bassoon 2016)
2015 – Michael Bridge (BMusPerf Accordion 2015)
2014 – David Zucchi (BMusPerf Saxophone 2014)
2013 – Matt Woroshyl (BMusPerf Jazz Saxophone 2013)
2012 – Coco Chen (BMusPerf Violin 2012)
2011 – Laura Silberberg (MMus Composition 2010, BMus 2008)
2010 – Alex Goodman (BMusPerf Jazz Guitar 2010)
2009 – Lauren Sweetman (MA Music Ethnomusicology 2009, BMus 2007)
2008 – Katarzyna Sadej (MMus Voice Performance 2008)
2007 – Stephen Hegedus (MMus Voice Performance 2007, BMusPerf Voice 2005)
2006 – Sarah Nematallah (BMusPerf Violin 2006)

The Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award was established by Dr. John B. Lawson, and the William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award was established by Dr. William Waters.