5 avril 2005
Canadian Composer Portrait CD: Istvan Anhalt wins 2005 Juno Award on Canadian Music Centre's Centrediscs label
Toronto

April 5, 2005 (Toronto) - The Canadian Music Centre is proud to announce that The Tents of Abraham by Canadian composer Istvan Anhalt and recorded on CMC's award-winning music label Centrediscs, received a 2005 Juno Award in the category of Best Classical Composition. Based on the biblical story of Abraham and his two sons, in which Anhalt describes the work as “a dream of peace between Judaism and Islam, The Tents of Abraham was commissioned by the Kingston Symphony to celebrate its 50th anniversary. This work was selected for inclusion in the Canadian Composer Portrait Series and the recording was made possible through the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Music Fund, the Davies Foundation and the Kingston Symphony Association with conductor Glen Fast. This is Anhalt's first Juno win, and after 15 years, this is Centrediscs second Juno Award.

Istvan Anhalt was born in 1919 in Budapest, Hungary and studied composition under Zoltán Kodály and Nadia Boulanger. In 1949, he immigrated to Canada, where through a fellowship grant from the Lady Davis Foundation, he was appointed assistant professor at the Faculty of Music at McGill University. From 1964 to 1971, he also served as McGill's founding director of its Electronic Music Studio and in 1971, he headed the music department of Queen's University where in 1984, he was awarded the title Professor Emeritus. Throughout his teaching career, Anhalt was an active composer, creating numerous works that have received premiere performances by leading Canadian musicians. In 2003, in recognition of his contribution to Canada's cultural life, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

The Canadian Composer Portrait CD series was launched in 2002 in a landmark partnership between the CMC, CBC Radio Two, CBC Records, and CBC Audio to celebrate the music of Canada's pioneering composers. Produced by Eitan Cornfield, these unique CD sets combine full-length documentaries on the composers' lives and music, accompanied by a selected recording of some of their most important works. The series has been lauded by composers, broadcasters, educators and as William Littler from the Toronto Star describes, “No more valuable contribution to the recorded literature of Canadian music is being made these days than the Portraits series on the Canadian Music Centre's Centrediscs label”. Canadian Composer Portrait: Istvan Anhalt (CMCCD 10204) and other recordings from Centrediscs label are available in retail stores and through the Canadian Music Centre Distribution Service (www.musiccentre.ca).

The CMC also recognizes and congratulates the other nominees from this category:
o A Farmer's Symphony - John Estacio (Frenergy, CBC Records)
o Nuevas Monodías españolas - José Evangelista (The Art of Touching the Keyboard, Earwitness)
o Pangaea - Jeffrey Ryan (Variations on a Memory, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra)
o Third Symphony - Robert Turner (Canadian Composer Portrait Series: Robertt Turner, Centrediscs)

Established in 1959, the Canadian Music Centre exists to stimulate the awareness, appreciation and performance of Canadian music, making the music of its Associate Composers available through its music libraries and through its various promotional and outreach activities. The CMC is Canada's primary information resource, producer, distributor and rental agent of concert music and sound recordings. Centrediscs was created in 1981 as Canada's foremost label of Canadian contemporary concert music, recording the works of Canadian composers associated with the Canadian Music Centre.

For more information, contact:
Kay Kanbayashi, Adjointe administrative & Coordonnatrice de projets
Tél : 416.961.6601poste 303 Courriel : kkanbayashi@musiccentre.ca