Oakville composer a finalist for prestigious provincial performing arts award

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Published May 16, 2022 at 11:36 am

Oakville composer Ian Cusson is one of 15 finalists named for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes. JOHN ARANO PHOTO

Oakville’s Ian Cusson is one of 15 finalists for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes.

The Johannas, which will be presented to five winners and their protégés on Thursday (May 19), celebrate artists in the province who have made a recognized impact on the field and the public, and show great promise in the ongoing pursuit of their ambitious and visionary practices.
Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French-Canadian descent, Cusson is a composer of art, song, opera and orchestral work.

He is the Composer-in-Residence for the Canadian Opera Company for 2019-2021 and the Co-Artistic Director of Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre.

Cusson’s work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures.

“It is an incredible honour to have my work recognized by my peers and by the wider performing arts community,” said Cusson, who lives in Oakville with his wife and four children. “The compositional life is often a solitary journey, one that is inevitably filled with self-doubt.

“To know that my work is resonating with a wider audience gives me a new-found drive to continue making work that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in contemporary art music.”

Cusson is also an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.
He was the recipient of the 2021 Jan V. Matejcek Classical Music Award from The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).

The five winners of the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes will be announced Thursday at a ceremony at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Each winner will receive a prize of $25,000 and will name a protégé who will receive $10,000 as a way of celebrating early career artists who are showing formidable promise.

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