The jury for this competition is made up听of two Canadian composers, one international composer, a distinguished member of the musical community, an internationally recognized performer, and a member of the concert-going public with a passion for musical creation.
Jean Lesage,
Jury Chair
Jean Lesage pursued his musical training with Gilles Tremblay for composition and analysis, Micheline Coulombe St-Marcoux and Yves Daoust for electronic music, Clermont P茅pin for orchestration, and with Mireille Lagac茅 for harpsichord.
Jean Lesage is very active on the Montr茅al music scene: he has been an advisory member of the Association pour la Cr茅ation et la Recherche 脡lectroacoustique du Qu茅bec, a program coordinator for the Soci茅t茅 des Concerts Alternatifs du Qu茅bec, and between 1990 and 2011, a member of the artistic committee of the Soci茅t茅 de Musique Contemporaine du Qu茅bec.
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From 1987 to 1995, he was also a reporter for the program Musique actuelle, broadcast on Radio-Canada鈥檚 FM radio. For the same network, in the summer of 1996, he produced and hosted Musique du Qu茅bec, a series of 12 programs on Qu茅bec鈥檚 musical modernism. He has been on the editorial board of Circuit, Contemporary Music Journal from 2005 to 2013.
From 1995 to 2009 Jean Lesage has been regularly invited as a composer and a teacher at the Rencontre internationale de musique nouvelle at Domaine Forget.
He has been teaching at the Orford Summer Academy since 2013.
In 1997 and in 2008, he has been guest editorial director for Circuit, for special issues on Montreal composers and on the music of Claude Vivier.
Since 1999, Jean Lesage has been teaching composition, music analysis and orchestration at the Schulich School of Music of 涩里番.
Marcos Balter
Praised by The Chicago Tribune as 鈥渕inutely crafted鈥� and 鈥渦tterly lovely,鈥� The New York Times as 鈥渨himsical鈥� and 鈥渟urreal,鈥� and The Washington Post as 鈥渄ark and deeply poetic,鈥� the music of composer Marcos Balter (b.1974, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in experimental manipulations of timbre and hyper-dramatization of live performance.
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He鈥檚 the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Tanglewood Music Center Leonard Bernstein Fellowship, and two Chamber Music America Awards. He has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Orquestra do Estado de S茫o Paulo, Geneva Camerata, Fromm Foundation, The MacArthur Foundation, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. His works are published by PSNY (Schott), and commercial recordings of his music are available through New Amsterdam Records, New Focus Recording, Parlour Tapes+, and Navona Records.
Recent appearances include those at Carnegie Hall, K枚ln Philharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, ArtLab at Harvard University, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Hall, Teatro Amazonas, Sala S茫o Paulo, Park Avenue Armory, Teatro de Madrid, B芒timent de Forces Motrices de Gen猫ve, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago. Recent festival appearances include those at Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ecstatic Music Festival, Acht Br眉cken, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Aspen, Frankfurter Gesellschaft f眉r Neue Musik, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, and Banff Music Festival. Recent collaborators include the rock band Deerhoof, King Britt and Alarm Will Sound, JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Music Ensemble, yMusic and Paul Simon, New World Symphony, Claire Chase and the San Francisco Symphony, The Crossing, and conductors Susanna Malkki, Steven Schick, Matthias Pintscher, and Karina Canellakis.
Prior to his appointment at Columbia University as the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition, he has held professorships at the University of California San Diego, Montclair State University, and Columbia College Chicago, as well as visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and the University of Pittsburgh, and a pre-doctoral fellow at Lawrence University.
Zosha Di Castri
Zosha Di Castri, a Canadian 鈥渃omposer of riotously inventive works鈥� (The New Yorker), currently lives in New York. Her music has been performed extensively worldwide and extends beyond purely concert music, including projects with electronics, sound arts, and collaborations with video and dance. She is currently the Francis Goelet Associate Professor of Music at Columbia University.
Highlights this season include the European premiere of Hunger for orchestra and improvised drummer at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, written to accompany Peter Foldes鈥� 1973 eponymous silent film; and Delve, a new string quartet written for Bozzini Quartet, premiering in New York (TIME:SPANS), Utrecht (Gaudeamus Festival), Montr茅al (Le Vivier), and Toronto (Soundstreams). Zosha will also work as a composer mentor in Soundstreams鈥� 2026 Bridges Emerging Composer Workshop & Showcase, and the Bozzini Quartet鈥檚 Composers鈥� Kitchen.
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Notable 2024/25 premieres include Noctiluca for large ensemble commissioned by the LA Phil and conducted by John Adams; and TOUCH:TRACE for percussionist Steve Schick and International Contemporary Ensemble, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation through the Library of Congress.听听
Zosha鈥檚 2019 debut album Tachitipo was released on New Focus Recordings to critical acclaim. The title track was nominated for The JUNO Awards鈥� 2021 Classical Composition of the Year. Tachitipo was praised as 鈥渁 formidable statement. It is so comprehensively realized, institutionally ratified, and sensitive to the creative exigencies of the 21st century that one wants to send a copy of it to the publishers of textbooks for music history survey courses in the hope that it will be included in a last chapter or two鈥� (I Care If You Listen).
Zosha is a recipient of the 2023 American Academy of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, the 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, and an inaugural fellow at the 2018-19 Paris Institute for Ideas and Imagination.
Afa Dworkin
Afa Sadykhly Dworkin is a music industry thought leader and cross-sector strategist driving national programming that fosters excellence and innovation in classical music.听听
Since 2015, she has served as President and Artistic Director of the Sphinx Organization, the nation鈥檚 leading organization transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. She has been named one of Musical America鈥檚 鈥淭op 30 Influencers鈥�, has received The Kennedy Center鈥檚 Human Spirit Award, Chamber Music America's Arts Advocate of the Year Award, and is a member of the Recording Academy庐. She serves as a Trustee to the League of American Orchestra, CultureSource Detroit, VisionIntoArt, New Canon, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Global Music Society, and other non-profits. The strength of Afa鈥檚 leadership across sectors and national divides is informed by her musical training as a violinist, more than 30 years of experience in the classical music field, and her international corporate experience as a trilingual interpreter and Executive Assistant to the President of ARCO, The International Oil and Gas Company in Baku, Azerbaijan. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Strings Magazine, and more.听
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In her Sphinx role, Afa oversees all strategic, fundraising, and artistic initiatives through which the organization expands access to classical music education and supports a national roster of distinguished musicians. Sphinx鈥檚 programs touch the lives of 100 million people through live and digital reach. As the Sphinx Organization鈥檚 first employee and formerly its Executive and Artistic Director, Afa has been responsible for creating and developing Sphinx鈥檚 programming since its inception. Under her leadership, Sphinx鈥檚 partner network has expanded to more than 300 organizations across the globe.听
In addition to her work at Sphinx, Afa has helped to shape the national classical music landscape as a multi-year orchestra grant review panelist for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, 3Arts Awards, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the MetLife Awards administered by The League of American Orchestras. Beyond the orchestral community, she has aided grant review for the Surdna Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Charlotte Arts and Sciences Council, Independent Sector鈥檚 American Express NGen Awards, and numerous state councils nationwide.听
Afa has delivered ongoing thought leadership through an extensive roster of speaking engagements, including those at the International Arts & Ideas Festival, Independent Sector, Classical NEXT, Grantmakers in the Arts, Young Audiences Norway, Esmeraldas Festival in Ecuador, Chamber Music America, National Association for Schools of Music, League of American Orchestras, ICSOM, and Association of Canadian Orchestras. Former faculty at Roosevelt University鈥檚 Master鈥檚 in Arts Administration program and Clarkston Conservatory in Michigan, Afa currently teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Michigan鈥檚 School of Music, Theatre & Dance and has lectured at The Juilliard School, Bowling Green State University, Indiana University, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Penn State, the University of Northern Texas, and Central Michigan University, among many others.听
With parents of Azerbaijani, Persian, Muslim, and Jewish heritage raised in Baku, Azerbaijan, Afa has been dedicated to issues surrounding cultural identity since her youth and has been a life-long champion for transforming marginalized communities through the power of the arts. Afa's music training began at the prestigious Azerbaijan National Conservatory, where she honed her craft under the tutelage of the region鈥檚 leading artists and pedagogies. She subsequently joined the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra as an entering freshman at the University of Michigan School of Music while earning her Bachelor鈥檚 and Master鈥檚 degrees in Violin Performance with High Honors. Her performing career has taken her to Russia, Switzerland, Austria, and throughout the United States. A multilingual individual, she is passionate about her family, culinary arts, and travel.听
Joseph Glaser
As both a composer and arts administrator Joseph鈥檚 interest lies in making Canadian contemporary music broadly accessible to the public. Joseph grew up in Montr茅al. He moved to Toronto and then to Vancouver to do his undergrad in Music Composition at UBC, where he studied with well-known CMC Associate Composers such as Dorothy Chang, Morlock, Keith Hamel, and Stephen Chatman. He returned to Montr茅al where he did his Masters degree in Music Composition at 涩里番, studying with CMC Associate Composer Jean Lesage. He moved to Toronto in 2019 and joined CMC Canada, eventually becoming the Coordinator of Music Services and Events.
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He was a production manager for a young artist program with the Vancouver International Song Institute (now the Art Song Lab) that was focused on opera artists and pianists. He has been a board member of 涩里番 Association of Students Composers, Codes d鈥檃cc猫s and Contemporary Music Lab.听 Joseph鈥檚 compositional work addresses the performer鈥檚 body as an intrinsic part of the compositional process creating works that are as much about the actions required to play them as they are about sound. This involves cross disciplinary collaborations with dancers, poets, theatre artists, and illustrators, creating works that exist between the boundaries of these genres.听
Amy Hillis
Amy Hillis has "a rich, warm sound and has mastered the violin with such ease, that it is impossible to ignore her passion in performance" (Ludwig Van Montr茅al). She challenges artistic norms to build community relationships inside and outside the concert hall. As a soloist, Amy has commissioned Canadian works by Luis Ramirez, Matt Brubeck, Fj贸la Evans, Gabriel Dufour-Laperri猫re, Laurence Jobidon, Vincent Ho, Andrew Staniland, Jocelyn Morlock, Nicole Liz茅e, Carmen Braden, Randolph Peters and Jordan Pal. She is winner of the Pan-Canadian Recital Tour, the Eckhardt-Gramatt茅 National Music Competition, the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank competition on two occasions, an artistic residency at La Cit茅 Internationale des Arts in Paris, the 涩里番 Concerto Competition, and the Sylva Gelber Foundation Music Award.听听
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Amy received her Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Music in Violin Performance from 涩里番 and she was also the violinist of the Graham Sommer Trio for the Graham Sommer Competition in 2021. Amy is currently Associate Professor of Community Music at York University and the Artistic Director of the Women鈥檚 Musical Club of Toronto.听听
Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Ricketts is a Canadian composer currently based in NYC. Matthew鈥檚 music has been called 鈥渓yrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced鈥� (The American Academy of Arts and Letters) and is noted for his 鈥渆ffervescent and at times prickly sounds,鈥� 鈥渉ypnotically churning exploration of melody鈥� (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its 鈥渢art harmonies and perky sputterings鈥� (The New York Times).
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He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, in addition to receiving fellowships and residencies from NYSCA (2025), The Fromm Foundation (2024), Bogliasco Foundation (2023), Millay (2022), Civitella Ranieri (2021) and MacDowell (2019; 2022). Particularly drawn to collaborative endeavors, Matthew has worked on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects, including scoring the feature film Glob Lessons (2021 Tribeca Film Festival official selection), dance projects with choreographers Michael Spencer Philips (Site-Specific Dances), Brendan Drake and Jennifer Nichols, and a variety of vocal/opera/musical-theater projects with writers and librettists Mark Campbell, Royce Vavrek, Mark Wunderlich, Dante Micheaux, Alain Farah and Tomson Highway.听听听
