Jessye Norman
Twelfth Laureate of the Glenn Gould Prize
A commanding force for opera, music education, and social justice.
Biography
Jessye Norman, one of the world’s most celebrated performing artists, is acclaimed for her performances in a wide range of leading roles with the world’s premier opera companies, in solo recitals and in concerts of her cherished classical repertoire with preeminent orchestras all over the globe, as well as her latest artistic expansion with her jazz ensemble.
Her extensive programming includes songs from the American musical theater, which she has entitled: American Masters. Another program: The Duke, the Monk and the Diva: a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.
The eclecticism continues with her participation in fully-staged performances of the music of John Cage. She is the recipient of many awards and accolades including some forty honorary doctorate degrees from colleges, universities and conservatories around the world, five Grammy awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of the Arts received at the White House from President Obama in 2010.
Norman is also a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. Her community service includes trustee board memberships of The New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, The Dance Theatre of Harlem and The New York Botanical Gardens. Norman is known for her passionate involvement and advocacy of arts education.
The Jessye Norman School of the Arts in Augusta, Georgia, is a tangible, living opportunity to address the need for education in the arts in the town where her own studies and training began.
“It is with the utmost humility and gratitude that I accept this magnificent honour, The Glenn Gould Prize. I was thrilled to have answered the telephone myself and to have heard this most wonderful news first-hand! My admiration for the artistic genius of Glenn Gould began very early on in my studies and was further supported in my having had Walter Homburger as the first presenter to invite me to perform in Canada. His work with Glenn Gould is, of course, legendary. It was he who made certain that I could experience on film the music of Bach played by a master of the keyboard and intellect of the highest order. Thank you, Walter. Thanks to The Glenn Gould Foundation. To have been chosen to receive this auspicious recognition is quite simply breath-taking!”
— Jessye Norman
Related
Jessye Norman’s Toronto Tale of Adventure and Inspiration
Jessye Norman – A Towering Presence in Music and the Human Family
The protégé
Since winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, Cécile McLorin Salvant has captivated jazz critics and fans with her artistry and unique talent. A multi-Grammy Award winner, she has released five solo albums to date: Cécile (2010), WomanChild (2013), For One To Love (2015), Dreams and Daggers (2017) and The Window (2018). Ms. McLorin Salvant has toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
“Singer, songwriter…a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality which lights up every note she sings. There is an intense, yet quiet confidence in her music-making that I find compelling and thoroughly enjoyable.”
Jessye Norman.
I was awestruck when I found out Jessye Norman chose me for the Glenn Gould protégé award. Jessye Norman is iconic, one of my idols for as long as I can remember, and I am so grateful to her for the incredible sound, artistry, and poetry she has brought to the world. Gould and Norman are absolutely reasons to get up in the morning.
Cécile McLorin Salvant
The Twelfth Prize Jury
Viggo Mortensen
U.S.A.
Born in New York City in 1958 and a citizen of the USA and Denmark, Mortensen has been a professional actor for nearly four decades. He has had the good fortune to work with many internationally renowned directors, including three times with David Cronenberg, and has been recognised by various film academies and critics’ organizations for his work. Apart from acting in movies and plays, he is also a poet, photographer, musician, and painter. He founded and is the editor of Perceval Press, an independent company that has offered a wide range of publications – including poetry, photography, painting, music, and critical writing – since 2002.
François Girard
Canada
Francois Girard gained notoriety as much for his filmmaking as for his staging of operas and theatre plays. In 1993, his feature film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould would go on to garner international success. Five years later he directed The Red Violin, featuring Samuel L. Jackson, which received an Academy Award for best original score and enshrined Girard as an important player on the international movie scene. Silk, which he later directed, was adapted from Alessandro Baricco’s best-selling book, and was released worldwide in 2007. Hochelaga, Land of Souls, his most recent feature film, was selected to represent Canada in the shortlist of the Oscar 2018 in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
Ute Lemper
Germany
Ute Lemper’s career has grown out of a passionate and enduring commitment to art, politics and history, as well as a contentious and complicated relationship with her homeland and its past, and has led to international acclaim as a recording artist and in theatre, cabaret and film worlds, including Velma Kelly in Chicago (London, New York, Las Vegas), Cabaret in Paris; in solo concerts like Kurt Weill Recital and Berlin Cabaret Evening; in symphony concerts, including The Seven Deadly Sins and Songs from Kurt Weill; and in Pina Bausch’s Kurt Weill Revue. She has explored the French chanson of Edith Piaf, Jacques Prévert, Joseph Kosma and Serge Gainsbourg, and Belgian poet Jacques Brel, as well as contemporary alternative rock music – from Tom Waits and Elvis Costello to Nick Cave, as well as Philip Glass, on her Punishing Kiss album – and she has created her own original material which can be heard on numerous albums.
Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin
Canada
Beverley McLachlin spent her formative years in Pincher Creek, Alberta and was educated at the University of Alberta, where she received a B.A. (Honours) in Philosophy in 1965. In 1968, she received both an M.A. in Philosophy and an LL.B. Her judicial career began in April 1981 when she was appointed to the Vancouver County Court. On January 7, 2000, she was appointed Chief Justice of Canada. She is the first woman in Canada to hold this position. In addition to her judicial duties at the Supreme Court, she has chaired the Canadian Judicial Council, the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada and the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute. She is the author of numerous articles and publications. She retired on December 15, 2017. Her debut mystery novel, Full Disclosure, is set to be published in the spring.
Foday Musa Suso
Gambia / United States
Foday Musa Suso is an internationally recognized musician and a Mandingo griot from the West African nation of Gambia. Griots are the oral historians and musicians of the Mandingo people, who live in several West African nations. Griots are a living library for the community, providing history, entertainment, and wisdom while playing and singing their songs. It is an extensive verbal and musical heritage that can only be passed down within a griot family. Foday is a direct descendent of Jali Madi Wlen Suso, the griot who invented the kora over four centuries ago. In 1977, he moved to Chicago and became the first kora player to establish himself in the United States. He formed The Mandingo Griot Society, playing a fusion of traditional and jazz now known as “world music.” He has performed as a soloist and with other musicians throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Foday has written many original compositions, toured, recorded and collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Philip Glass, Jack deJonette, Kronos Quartet and Paul Simon.
Naeemeh Naeemaei
Iran
Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1984, Naeemeh Naeemaei received her BA in art from Tehran Art University in 2006. After graduation she participated in numerous individual and group shows in Tehran, both in sculpture and painting, including the 5th Tehran Contemporary Sculpture Biennial, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2009, she began a series of paintings about endangered species, which eventually led to her first solo exhibition titled “Dreams Before Extinction” at the Henna Gallery in Tehran in 2011. She combined these innovative artistic ideas with hands-on involvement with children’s education in Iran, working to raise awareness in communities in close proximity to endangered species. In addition, she is highly skilled in digital graphics as an illustrator for children’s books like Mr. Samad and the Little Black Fish, a modern classic in contemporary Iranian culture. In 2016, she was the category winner in painting in the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition, sponsored by the David Shepherd Foundation in London.
Sondra Radvanovsky
United States / Canada
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is a globally celebrated artist. The depth and exquisite colour of her voice are matched by her dramatic acting ability and versatility across a remarkable range of repertoire. She is widely regarded as one of the premiere Verdi sopranos alive today, as well as one of the premiere interpreters of bel canto. She has performed in every major opera house in the world, including the Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Opernhaus Zürich, and numerous others. She trained at the Metropolitan Opera in the late 1990s in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Her recordings include Verdi Arias and an album of Verdi opera scenes with Dmitri Hvorostovsky. She also stars in a Naxos DVD of Cyrano de Bergerac alongside Plácido Domingo, and in transmissions of Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, and Roberto Devereux for the wildly popular “Met: Live in HD” series.
Howard Shore
Canada
Composer Howard Shore has won three Academy Awards for The Lord of the Rings as well as four Grammys, three Golden Globes and numerous critic and festival awards for his music. He is an officer of the Order of Canada, an Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and the recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. He has scored over 80 films and collaborated with many esteemed directors: David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, David Fincher, Jonathan Demme, Tim Burton, Arnaud Desplechin, Sydney Lumet, James Gray, and Barbet Schroeder. His opera, The Fly (2008) premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera. Other recent works include the piano concerto Ruin and Memory for Lang Lang (2010), the song cycle A Palace Upon the Ruins featuring mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (2014), a cello concerto Mythic Gardens featuring Sophie Shao (2012), Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia (2008), Sea to Sea (2017) in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation, and The Forest a guitar concerto composed for Miloš to premiere in 2019 for the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Ye Xiaogang
China
Ye Xiaogang is one of China’s leading contemporary composers. He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in China, and in America at the Eastman School of Music. He has received numerous prizes and awards at home and abroad, including the China Arts Award. He was a fellow of the Metropolitan Life Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2012.
Professor Ye is presently Vice Chairman of China’s Musicians’ Association, Vice President of the Central Conservatory of Music, and Founder and Artistic Director of Beijing Modern Music Festival, the biggest contemporary music festival in the Far East. Ye’s oeuvre comprises symphonic works, chamber music, stage works and film music, and much of his music bears a strong connection to Chinese culture and tradition fused with a personal contemporary language, noteworthy for its love of nature. His works have been performed by international orchestras and ensembles including the Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Ensemble Modern.