Musicians of the Year 2020-2021
2020-2021 Musicians of the Year Award Recipients
Ryan Scott – Continuum
Levon Ichkhanian – Theatre / In Media
Orin Issacs – In Media
Signe Miranda – Live / MPTF
Ray Tizzard – Live / In Media / Symphonic
Jody Colero – In Media
Christine Gale Harrison – Live / MPTF
Leisa Way – Live / MPTF
Lawrence Cherney – Soundstreams
Shannon Wojewoda – MPTF
The last two years have been undeniably certainly the toughest ones I have seen in what still feels like a short career to me. Our industry has undergone a spectacular downturn due to the pandemic and the lack of life performance. And yet, there remains a flurry of activity, metamorphosis, and growth.
It gives me great pleasure to announce the 2020 and 2021 musician of the year. I should say Musicians. The Board after consulting with members, staff and other stakeholders are awarding “Musician of the Year” awards to a stellar list of musicians. They were all chosen for simply refusing to give up or fold their hands in the face of system wide change. Each of these names represents a member who either continued to do what they do in spite of the challenges, or they simply figured out how to pivot what they normally do and do it differently. In each case they are members who kept the work flowing not for themselves but with an understanding they were contributing to a larger ecosystem that needed leadership and innovation and they felt an obligation to do so. This cohort covers all aspects of our local from jingles to media to symphonic and live engagements. Many took advantage of every opportunity they could find from the MPTF to federal, provincial and municipal assistance. They kept the lights on. They learned about streaming, and recording and how many musicians they could safely put in a room without feeding them and how far apart to keep them after not being allowed to feed them and whether they needed plexiglass partitions between them and what were the vaccination requirements and how do we sell tickets and so on. They did all of this remotely. It is safe to say the work load doubled and it was all new.
On behalf of our membership I want to say thank you to these exceptional souls for creating work, raising the standards of our profession and above all, keeping the faith and hope alive. We all thrive when we work together, we will come back better, stronger and healthier.
– Andy Morris
