Pianist Meagan Milatz Honored
Montreal, Thursday, April 25, 2024 – The JM Canada Foundation is pleased to award the Choquette-Symcox 2025 Prize to pianist Meagan Milatz. The artist receives a $6,000 award of excellence to support her career development.
“Since 2018, we’ve had the pleasure of following Meagan’s evolution as an emerging artist, and we’re more than thrilled to recognize her musical talent and professional achievements with this award,” explains Véronique Desjardins, Executive Director of Fondation JM Canada.
Each year, the JM Canada Foundation and Jeunesses Musicales Canada choose, at their discretion, the winner of the award, which aims to support a young Quebec musician in his or her career development.
Biography of Meagan Milatz
Meagan Milatz is “a remarkable pianist […] her expressive palette seems limitless” (Le Devoir). Winner of the 2024 Prix Opus “Discovery of the Year”, Meagan regularly collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as Avi Avital, Andrew Wan, Olivier Charlier, Stefan Dohr, Matt Haimovitz, Øystein Baadsvik, and Cho Liang Lin, among many others. Her first album recorded for ATMA Classique was released in December 2023, featuring early works for fortepiano and natural horn with Louis-Pierre Bergeron and showcasing her interest in playing on historic pianos. In 2022, Meagan was named co-artistic director of Concerts HausMusique with cellist Cameron Crozman.
Internationally, Meagan has performed at the New Ross Piano Festival in Ireland in 2023 and at the Edeta Arts International Chamber Music Festival in Spain, as well as in concerts in Scotland, France, Italy and Portugal. She won the first pan-Canadian tour with violinist Amy Hillis ( meagan&amy ), representing a series of 50 concerts organized across Canada by Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Debut Atlantic and Prairie Debut.
Meagan has appeared as soloist with orchestras across Canada, including the Edmonton Symphony, the Regina Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Her talent has earned her numerous distinctions, including first prize at the Shean Piano Competition, the McGill Classical Concerto Competition and the Canadian Music Competition, as well as an award from the Sylva Gelber Foundation for Music. Meagan holds a Master’s degree from McGill University and is grateful to her teachers and lifelong mentors Cherith Alexander, Philip Chiu and Ilya Poletaev, as well as Tom Beghin, with whom she had the privilege of studying fortepiano.
About the Choquette-Symcox Award
Created in 2010 by Fernand Choquette and Peter Symcox, the Choquette-Symcox Award is given each year to support the talent and virtuosity of a young Quebec musician in his or her career development.
About the Foundation JM Canada
The JM Canada Foundation’s mission is to raise, create and administer funds to support JM Canada’s mission to promote the discovery of classical music among young audiences and to support the career development of young classically trained musicians on the national scene.
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Information:
Véronique Desjardins
Executive Director
JM Canada Foundation
vdesjardins@jmcanada.ca