Presided over by André Bourbeau, CMIM co-founder and president, the 2017 international jury included:
From left: Dang Thai Son (Vietnam-Canada), Pedja Muzijevic (Bosnia), R. Douglas Sheldon (USA), Idil Biret (Turkey), Gabriel Tacchino (France), Hélène Mercier (Canada), Alain Lefèvre (Canada), David Owen Norris (United Kingdom), Cristina Ortiz (Brazil) and non-voting president André Bourbeau
CLAUS PETER FLOR
The prizes awarded to the winners and finalists are given during an official ceremony preceding the Gala concert.
First Prize: $30,000
Offered by the Ville de Montréal
&
Joseph Rouleau Career Development Grant: $50,000
Funded by The Azrieli Foundation
Second Prize Pierre Péladeau: $15,000
Offered by Québecor
Third Prize: $10,000
Offered by Stingray Classica
Award for the Best Canadian Artist
Offered by the Bourbeau Foundation
$5,000
Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award
$5,000
André-Bachand Award for most outstanding performance of the compulsory Canadian work in the semifinals
Offered by Jean-Claude and Raymond Bachand
$4,000
Award for the best semifinal recital
Offered by Tourisme Montréal
$2,000
Bach Award for most outstanding performance of a work for solo keyboard by J.S. Bach
Offered by the Montreal Bach Festival
$1,000
Chopin Award for most outstanding performance of a work for solo piano by F. Chopin
Offered by Liliana Komorowska
$1,000
CMIM Grant
For the 3 unranked finalists
$2,000
The CMIM maintains a network of partner institutions which will offer its laureates, award winners and finalists the following advantages:
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Residency: this two-week music residency sponsored by the Banff Centre provides the CMIM First Prize Laureate with a period of focussed time for artistic development and work on special projects.
CBC Broadcast: the winner of Best Canadian Artist will be offered the opportunity to record a recital for national broadcast on In Concert with host Paolo Pietropaolo, heard Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on CBC Radio Two.
A Pro Account for 3 years on Hello Stage, an independent online platform for the classical music community, offered to each of the six finalists;
Professional Engagements: the competition maintains a network of partner institutions which have committed to offering CMIM laureates and award winners professional engagements in upcoming seasons.
To honour the work of Montreal pianist and composer André Mathieu, the CMIM officials have chosen Laurentienne No. 2 as the compulsory Canadian work for candidates in their semifinal recital.
André Mathieu
André Mathieu was born in Montreal on February 18, 1929. Like Mozart, he received his first music lessons from his father, and was already composing little pieces by the age of four. Noël Strauss of The New York Times wrote that even Mozart, the greatest musical prodigy of all time, only began composing at the age of four, and his first works were much simpler in nature than those of the young Canadian. Also like Mozart, he astonished audiences far and wide with his pianistic prowess from a very young age: at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal at six, in the Salle Pleyel and Salle Gaveau in Paris at seven, in Carnegie Hall, New York at ten. Rachmaninov pronounced him “a genius, more so than I am.”
André Mathieu undertook composition studies in Paris, then later in New York, and after World War II again in Paris. Most of his works are short piano pieces, but only about a quarter of his known compositions – well over two hundred – have been located thus far, and much research remains to be done. Mathieu’s fame peaked around 1950. He died on April 18, 1968, completely forgotten, at the age of 39.
Laurentienne No. 2 (1946)
Only the second of [André Mathieu’s] six “Laurentienne” pieces survives. “I would say it is a remarkably good work for a composer of any age, let alone seventeen. In it I found something that I have never seen anywhere else: trills in the right hand for the inner fingers while the outer fingers (thumb and pinkie) are involved with other material.” Alain Lefèvre
© Robert Markow
The rules, regulations and required repertoire are available here:
CMIM_Piano2017_Rules-Conditions-Repertoire
Age limit:
30 years old on May 1, 2017
