1994 SOCAN
the Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award
Dec. 1994. Words & Music magazine
Composer Oskar Morawetz, winner of the Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award,
delighted the audience with an anecdote about two concertgoing ladies discussing
a program. " 'I always look at the dates after the composers' names,' said one
woman. 'And if there's only one date, I know I won't like it.' "
Speech by Jan V. Matejcek, presenting award to Oskar Morawetz at awards
ceremony:
The following award which carries my name is designed to give recognition to
a composer of concert music who has distinguished himself not only by the size
of his active repertoire but primarily by a currently unsurpassed number of
performances of a vast variety of works executed by world renowned conductors
and performers both here in Canada and in the US as well as overseas. This year,
in assessing the achievements of 1993, I will be talking about one of the
founding members of the League of Canadian Composers, Dr. Oskar Morawetz.
An impressive number of performances throughout the world of a wide range of
Oskar's works, his chamber music, choral pieces and orchestral music has taken
place in various centres of culture such as Paris and as close as Toronto or
distant as Armenia and Beijing, with many more slated for the coming year where
the list starts with three performances by Vladimir Ashkenhazy and the Cleveland
Symphony of Morawetzes "Diary of Ann Frank".
His "Memorial to Martin Luther King" for orchestra and cello solo was
performed four times by the New York Philharmonic and the internationally
acclaimed cellist Yo Yo Ma under the direction of Kurt Masur at the Lincoln
Centre in New York. Three more performances of the same work followed in
Toronto, played again by Yo Yo Ma and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
The same work received an additional 22 performances in 1993 in Canada and
the US and overseas in Brazil and Switzerland with broadcasts in Ireland,
Vatican City, New Zealand and Argentina.
A special commission was also extended to Dr. Morawetz by violinst Itzak
Perlman, Yo Yo Ma and Seiji Ozawa to transcribe two compositions by Dvorak for
violin, cello and orchestra for an all Dvorak anniversary concert by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in Prague to commemorate the first performance of Dvorak's
"New World" Symphony. This concert was recorded by Sony Classics and televised
by over 60 stations in the US and Europe.
Other performances included a world premiere of his concerto for bassoon and
orchestra by the Cleveland Symphony and four performances of his Passacaglia for
orchestra by the Vancouver Symphony conducted by Sergiu Comissiona.
Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, please join me in congratulating Oskar
Morawetz for the worldwide performances of his many works in 1993.
Dr. Oskar Morawetz...
