Toronto, January 9, 2024 – Suba Sankaran is the recipient of this year’s $10,000 Kathleen McMorrow Music Award. The award recognizes the composition and presentation of contemporary classical music by Ontario composers. This year’s award is in support of Suba’s upcoming project Blue Skies, Red Earth, Tall Pines in collaboration with Jumblies Theatre’s Gather Round Singers, City Choir and Autorickshaw. The piece concerns the theme of border crossings both literal and metaphorical, bringing together poetry, songs, stories, and a curiosity to connect Western choral music with Eastern musical traditions.
About Suba Sankaran
Suba Sankaran is a renowned Dora Award-winning, thrice JUNO-nominated world/fusion artist who effortlessly combines musical worlds. Suba is in demand as a choral director, arranger, composer, and educator, having taught at York University, the University of Toronto and Humber College, and has given masterclasses across the globe. She has composed and produced music for theatre, film, radio and dance, including collaborations with Deepa Mehta, the CBC, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival and the debut of her original music at the Barbican Theatre in London as part of Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata.
Suba co-created City Choir, a global community choir in Toronto, and serves as artistic associate with Confluence Concerts, a company of diverse creative artists dedicated to personal, thought-provoking, and moving presentations. Suba was recently awarded a 2023 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize.
“My deepest gratitude to Kathleen McMorrow and the Ontario Arts Foundation. I’m honoured and thrilled to be recognized for my artistic achievements through this award, which gives not only a boost in confidence, but also affirmation for my chosen path as an artist and creator,” says Suba Sankaran. “My compositions are an expression of, and search for, deeper understanding of my identity as a hyphenated-Canadian with a South Indian background, and I aspire to continue creating, collaborating, and building community through my compositions.”
About the Award
The Kathleen McMorrow Music Award was established in 2015. Kathleen McMorrow headed the Music Library at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music from 1974 to 2013. She established the award to recognize and encourage the composition and presentation of Canadian contemporary classical music.
The Ontario Arts Foundation manages the endowment that funds the award. The Ontario Arts Council is responsible for the selection process. The award recipient is selected from the applicants to the Ontario Arts Council Music Creation Projects program deadlines.
Previous award winners include Afarin Mansouri (2022), Suad Bushnaq (2021), and Parisa Sabet (2020).
Kannamma: Performed by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, conducted by Simon Rivard Composition, arrangement, soloist – Suba Sankaran | Choreography, Odissi dance – Supriya Nayak Video capture and edit, audio mastering by Ed Hanley
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For information, please contact:
Bruce Bennett, Executive Director
Ontario Arts Foundation
Tel: (416) 969-7413 bbennett@oafdn.ca
Established in 1991, the Ontario Arts Foundation (OAF) is passionately committed to building long-term support for the arts in Ontario. In 2022-2023, the OAF paid $4 million in endowment income and $450,000 in awards and grants.
For 60 years, the Ontario Arts Council has played a vital role in promoting and assisting the development of the arts for the enjoyment and benefit of Ontarians. In 2022-2023, OAC invested $55.9 million in 220 communities across Ontario through 2,269 grants to individual artists and 1,023 grants to organizations.
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