The Ontario Regional office of the Canadian Music Centre has been advancing the mission of the CMC in the province for more than 30 years. We are one part of an extensive community of artists and organizations that connects audiences and learners with contemporary music and composers.

The Beckwith Award recognizes and celebrates the extraordinary contributions of Ontario-based organizations towards this shared mission.

Scope & Eligibility | Several awards are given out each year. Recipients can include ensembles, festivals, music series, education programs, and educators, among others. Recipients will have an established record of valuing and contributing to contemporary music-making across Ontario.

Selection Process | Recipients of the Beckwith Award are determined through consultation with the CMC Ontario Regional Council, a volunteer-driven advisory council with membership from different parts of the province that is active in a variety of musical contexts.

Recipients are profiled through the CMC Ontario site, CMC social media, and general media outreach. CMC Ontario provides a framed certificate, and coordinates a public presentation in collaboration with the recipient.

Profile picture of John Beckwith. Credit: André Leduc

About John Beckwith | As a composer, educator, writer, and administrator, John Beckwith has played a singular role in Canadian music. Born in 1927, Beckwith pursued his interest in music from a young age. He became part of the University of Toronto faculty of music in 1952, would serve the faculty as dean from 1970-1977, and in 1984 became the first director of the faculty’s Institute for Canadian Music (now the Institute for Music in Canada). Apart from the various lectures, articles and papers that he has produced, Beckwith served as a script-writer and programmer at the CBC and a critic/columnist at the Toronto Star in the 50s and 60s. Musically, Beckwith has produced an extensive catalogue including chamber, choral, large ensemble, and staged works.

Most significantly, in telling the story of the CMC, John Beckwith is one of our founders. In dialogue with his peers in the 1950s, Beckwith imagined the CMC as a composer support centre. Beckwith went so far as to house the music of his colleagues in his basement, which formed the “nucleus” of the CMC holdings when the organization was established in 1959. He remains an active contributor to the CMC: visiting to conduct research in our collection, attending concerts, supporting early-career artists, and of course submitting new compositions.

Information | to learn more about the Beckwith Award contact matthew.fava@cmccanada.org.

Photo Credit: André Leduc

DAN AUSTIN

Dan Austin has been teaching instrumental and vocal music for 19 years, and is currently the Band Director and Instrumental Music Teacher at Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute in Guelph, Ontario. A graduate of York University’s Jazz Music Program, Dan has developed and built strong music programs at both the elementary and secondary levels at Twin Lakes Secondary School, Glenhaven Senior Public School, and Mitchell Woods Public School. He is a regular clinician at the Ontario Music Educators Association conference, and contributor to music education journals.

Dan keeps an active schedule as a vocal and instrumental performer the Harbourtown Sound A Cappella Men’s Chorus (Hamilton), The After Party a cappella quartet (2019 Ontario Silver Medalists). Dan also released his first solo jazz album as a bass player in 2017.

Dan also plays a significant organizing and governance role as Treasurer for the Peel Intermediate Music Teacher’s Association, President and founder of the Upper Grand Elementary Music Teachers Association, Vice President of Youth In Harmony for the Ontario District, and Education Coordinator for the International award winning Ontario Youth A Cappella Chorus.

DANICA BROKELMAN

Danica Brokelman is currently in her twelfth year of teaching with the York Region District School Board. Ms. Brokelman received her undergraduate degree from Trent University and her Bachelor Of Education from Queen’s University. She is currently completing her Masters Degree in Education at Trent University.

Ms. Brokelman is keenly interested in promoting the values of lifelong learning and musicianship. During her career, she has conducted a wide variety of musical ensembles, including wind bands, jazz ensembles, choirs, and chamber ensembles. She has also directed numerous musical productions for primary and junior level students.

Outside of her school commitments, Ms. Brokelman is highly active in community music. She is a co-conductor and supervisory member of the Markham Area East Elementary Band, and has been an audition consultant, and saxophone and oboe clinician for the York Region Elementary Enrichment Band. She has implemented workshops for schools and ensembles in the York Region District School Board, and the Bluewater District School Board. In addition, Ms. Brokelman was also an administrative supervisor for the York Region Music Camp from 2006 – 2009. As an avid amateur musician, she currently performs as an oboist in the York Symphony Orchestra

Ms. Brokelman is a passionate advocate for Music Education, and aims to make music accessible to students of all ages and abilities, with opportunities for performance for all students. She is currently teaching Grades 3 to 8 Music at Black Walnut Public School.

HAMILTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra aims to enrich the well-being of the greater Hamilton region by engaging, educating and inspiring the community through outstanding professional orchestral music. Music Director Gemma New works with the musicians of the orchestra to present artistically rich Mainstage concerts along with engaging talks and performances for all ages in the community. In her five seasons as Music Director, New has committed to commissioning and performing Canadian contemporary orchestral works. In 2016, she launched Intimate & Immersive, a contemporary music series with a “closer-to-the-music” atmosphere and multidisciplinary installations. New worked alongside Composer-in-Residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte, curator of the HPO’s What Next Festival of Canadian contemporary works for seven seasons, to develop the Composer Fellowship Program. The fellowship offers six months of artistic and professional mentorship to two early-career Ontario-based composers, investigating both the creative process and business of orchestral composing.

OPEN EARS FESTIVAL

The Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound based in Ontario’s Waterloo Region uses unusual venues to present an eclectic range of musics from indie-classical to electroacoustic, musique actuelle and sound installation. Festival activities inhabit wildlife preserves, urban streetscapes, galleries and concert halls in order to bring communities into contact with sound and music that is truly transformative. The festival is highly collaborative in its approach to co-presenting with, or featuring activities programmed by local partners—including an emphasis on cross-disciplinary projects.

 The festival continues to feature a mix of local, national and international artists. Guest artists have included Brian Eno, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Diamanda Galas, Negativland, DJ Spooky, Tristan Perich, Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota and Pauline Oliveros. Open Ears has featured a variety of Canadians such as Sarah Neufeld, Gordon Monahan, Michael Snow, John Oswald, Murray Schafer, Tim Brady and Hildegard Westerkamp. In 2020, Open Ears features Pulitzer Prize winning artist Caroline Shaw.

THUNDER BAY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

In 1960, two Toronto musicians, Rene Charrier and Douglas Dahlgren, were en route to Edmonton when they were forced to make a side trip to Thunder Bay after their car broke down in a small town three hours away. They turned up at a furniture store, sat down at the display piano and began playing. The store’s owner soon struck up a conversation with these wandering minstrels and the talk eventually turned to their dreams of starting a symphony orchestra. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sixty years later, the TBSO currently includes 30 full-time musicians, who perform across Northwestern Ontario and engage with over 10,000 students through its robust education programming each year.  The Orchestra performs a wide-ranging repertoire from the great classical masterworks to pops and children’s concerts. As the only fully-professional orchestra between Toronto and Winnipeg, the TBSO strives to be the best regional orchestra in Canada, appealing to as wide and diverse an audience as possible through excellent performances and original programming. In 2019, the TBSO received its first Juno nomination for its CD, Into the Wonder, and is thrilled and honoured to be one of the Beckwith Awards’ inaugural recipients.

KINGSTON SYMPHONY

The Kingston Symphony is a professional orchestra that has excelled in making orchestral music meaningful to modern audiences. Its various outreach and education programs bring music to a broad and increasingly diverse audience, providing new relevance to the music of the past while championing the works of Canadian composers. For 67 years the Kingston Symphony, now led by Music Director Evan Mitchell, has strived to make the orchestral world relevant to audiences in Kingston and the surrounding region. It is an ardent supporter of Canadian music and has commissioned and premiered important works by composers such as Istvan Anhalt, John Burge, Dean Burry, Cecilia Livingston, Marjan Mozetich, and Ryan Trew.

NUMUS

NUMUS is a presenter and producer of contemporary music based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Canadian composer Peter Hatch founded NUMUS in 1985 to showcase established and emerging talent, with a strong focus on local artists. The organization went on to release several recordings, host several festivals, and provide seasonal programming that now features approximately 10-12 concerts per season. There is no other arts organization in Kitchener-Waterloo with a similar vision or mandate that operates year-round.

Currently, NUMUS has several outreach initiatives meant to give young artists in its community exceptional opportunities. These include the annual Emerging Improviser Contest, which gives young improvising musicians the opportunity to perform in NUMUS concerts alongside world-class improvisers, and the Emerging Curator contest in which students interested in artistic direction can propose their own ideas for innovative concerts, with the winner receiving their own series concert and mentorship from NUMUS’ Artistic Director. The majority of these winners go on to perform in subsequent NUMUS concerts, build successful tours and gain important performance opportunities, create and distribute albums, and some also give back by becoming board members. Artistic Director, Kathryn Ladano, who began her tenure in 2014, currently leads the organization.

SCARBOROUGH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO), founded in 1980, has been serving Scarborough for 40 years. In 2009, the SPO welcomed its current Music Director, Ronald Royer, raising the artistic standards of the orchestra to a new level with performances of major repertoire such as Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and Mahler’s Symphony No.4.

The SPO regularly commissions and performs new Canadian compositions. The SPOs Composer-In-Residence (CIR) program has included such artists as Barbara Croall, Omar Daniel, Bruno Degazio, Alex Eddington, John Estacio, Chan Ka Nin, Jim McGrath, Alexander Rapoport, and Elizabeth Raum, with Daniel Mehdizadeh currently serving in the role.

The SPO mentor’s new generation musicians and composers. The annual SPO New Generation Composers Workshop provides compositional training and career guidance in preparation for a reading session which includes a recording of the composer’s music.

The SPO collaborates with members of the Chinese community in Scarborough regularly presenting concerts featuring traditional and modern Chinese music paired with Western music. This proximity to community has also resulted in the founding of the SPO Women’s Choir, and a newly formed collaboration with the Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto.

BERNIE ANDREWS

Bernie Andrews, Ed.D. is Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa. He has several years of experience teaching and administering music and arts program at post-secondary and other school levels. He has published extensively on music education, curriculum theory and the arts in provincial, national and international professional and refereed journals. His latest books include Working together: A case study of a national arts education partnership, Peter Lang, 2016 and Perspectives on arts education research in Canada, Volumes 1 and 2, Brill, 2019 and 2020.

Bernie’s research is focused on educational music composition, interactive teaching strategies, arts partnerships, arts-based research methods, and teacher development in the arts. He has received three Social Science and Humanities Research Council grants for the study of the generative processes of music composition. His projects, in collaboration with Canadian Music Centre staff and composers, has resulted in the composition of a large number of new works for young musicians in schools and private instruction. Bernie studied in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto for his bachelors and masters degrees in music education when John Beckwith was dean of the Faculty.

CATHERINE KLOEPFER

Catherine Kloepfer is an educator with the York Region District School Board. She graduated from the Trent-Queen’s Education program in 2001 and has been teaching Music since 2003. She currently teaches music from Kindergarten through Grade 8 music at Coledale Public School. Catherine works to bring musical learning to her students that highlights contemporary Canadian music of all genres and performance opportunities to her students including choirs, bands, small ensembles, school wide musicals, concerts and festivals.

Catherine is dedicated to giving students the chance to expand and build upon their skills and advocating for student voice. Outside of her own school, Catherine has been active in helping to create and sustain student music opportunities within the York Region District School Board. She has been involved in the York Region Elementary Enrichment Band since 2003 and became part of the Camp Leadership Team in 2009. In 2011, Catherine joined the Markham Area East Band as a co-conductor and co-director. In May 2016 Catherine created the annual Celebration of Bands Invitational Festival, bringing together students from different schools with a love of band to make music together. This non-competitive student led festival focuses on community building, peer adjudication, a Canadian Composer workshop and mass band experience.

Catherine believes strongly in the community that music can create and the importance of collaboration in musical education. She continues to work with her fellow music educators to bring meaningful music education that encompasses learning, composition and playing to her students through these pandemic teaching times when community is more important than ever.

LAURA LEE MATTHIE

Laura Lee began her teaching career in 1995 with the Simcoe County District School Board after receiving her Honours Music Education and Bachelor of Education Degrees at The University of Western Ontario.

Her current school, Orillia Secondary School, opened in 2015 and Laura Lee was part of the planning teams for each step along the way: accommodation review, closure, new building design, amalgamation and finally the move. Laura Lee’s program has been part of a few musical commissions over the years including a piece to commemorate the opening of the school.

Laura Lee has always been interested in facilitating experiential learning for her students. Over the years she has brought in numerous professional musicians and conductors to present workshops, provide concerts and engage musicians of all levels at her school. To promote the values of musicianship and lifelong learning, she has conducted a variety of musical ensembles including jazz bands, percussion & saxophone ensembles, and concert bands. Each group provides opportunities for her students to share their talents and further develop their own learning.

As a passionate educator and advocate for music education, Laura Lee served on the board of the Ontario Music Educators’ Association since 2004—serving as President form 2008-2010, and currently serving as Treasurer. Laura Lee was awarded the 2018 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year and the 2015 Excellence in Education Award in her board.