Jeanne Lamon

2013 TMA149 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

The Toronto Musicians’ Association is proud to award Jeanne Lamon its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jeanne recently announced that she will be stepping down as Music Director of Tafelmusik, an organization she has guided for over 30 years. In that time, the ensemble has put Toronto on the map as a centre of excellence in period performance. Under her leadership, they have travelled the globe, performing in over 325 cities in 30 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Musikverein. With a discography of some 78 recordings — winning 9 JUNO awards — on such labels as Sony Music, CBC Records, Analekta, BMG, Collegium, Hyperium, and now their own house label, Tafelmusik Media, they have shone a fresh light on a huge amount of repertoire, not just by achieving relentlessly exacting musical standards in everything they do, but by keeping the music relevant long after it was new. Jeanne was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2000.

What makes Tafelmusik’s international success particularly remarkable is that so much of it was accomplished from an old church basement. Tafelmusik achieved greatness despite a lack of air conditioning, doors too narrow for a pair of timpani, a stage that needed to be torn down every Saturday night for church services, offices without windows, and a backstage area no bigger than a postage stamp. These obstacles were overcome in large part because Jeanne’s talent, passion, determination, and leadership ability allowed her to gather a critical mass of people with a common goal, whom she guided to become greater than the sum of its parts. That is truly a lifetime achievement.

It is leaders like Jeanne whose skills and vision create the institutions in our city that we as musicians depend upon for sustenance, both financial and — much more importantly — musical. Musicians are by nature dreamers, and we strive to communicate great ideas and emotions with notes. Some musicians, like Jeanne Lamon, are dreamers who cause their dreams to come true, and we are better for having them in our midst.

Thank you Jeanne, and congratulations on an exceptional journey!