American composer Philip Glass awarded $100,000 Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto

TORONTO – American composer Philip Glass says he had a mutual friend in common with late Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and always admired his music.

He never got to meet him, but on Tuesday he felt a connection with him as he was awarded the $100,000 Glenn Gould Prize.

“Glenn Gould was such an inspiring person for my generation, and for many other people too, obviously,” Glass, 78, said in a brief telephone interview shortly after the laureate was announced.

“There was this idea that we were going to meet some day and we never did. But he was an excellent musician.”

This year marked the 11th instalment of the biennial prize, which honours living laureates from a variety of creative disciplines for their body of work. Previous winners include Robert Lepage, Leonard Cohen, Yo-Yo Ma and Oscar Peterson.

This year the award doubled in value from $50,000.

Actress-filmmaker Sarah Polley, singer Petula Clark and author Michael Ondaatje were among the jury members for this year’s award. Music producer Bob Ezrin chaired the panel, which also included former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and soprano Deborah Voigt. The jury was rounded out by tenor Jay Hunter Morris, Princess Julie of Luxembourg, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, and film and TV producer Martin Katz.

About a month ago, the Glenn Gould Foundation gave jury members a book of 80 candidates who had been nominated by people around the world.

The jury came together on Monday and whittled it down to one laureate, with the mandate of honouring an artist “whose work elevated the human condition.”

Ezrin said he wanted the jury members to each feel comfortable with the choice and come to a unanimous decision.

They chose Glass because he’s “a deeply principled guy with a particular approach to spiritualism and a particular love for humanity and for the planet, and a reverence for both that infuses all his work in a way.”

“He believes in freedom and his music is imbued with that, and when it goes out into the world I like to think that it actually pushes that agenda, even when nothing is being said — when you just listen,” said Ezrin.

Born in Baltimore, Glass has had a prolific body of work with scores for operas, symphonies, musical theatre and film.

He’s earned many honours, including Oscar nominations for his music in “Notes on a Scandal,” “The Hours” and “Kundun.”

His so-called “minimal music” is credited with inspiring generations of artists and bringing an innovative style to the mainstream.

Glass said he’s composed “a lot of” his music in Canada, noting he’s been going to Cape Breton, N.S., every year since 1969 and has performed at the Scotia Festival of Music.

“The connection with Canada is very strong,” he noted.

He said he knew about the Glenn Gould Foundation but didn’t know about the prize and was “pleased and surprised” when he heard he was named the winning laureate.

Glass, who recently published “Words Without Music: A Memoir,” now gets to choose a young artist to receive the $15,000 City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protege Prize.

There has never been a female laureate of the prize and Clark said she and the other five female jury members “sort of felt that it should be a woman.” But they ultimately chose Glass based on the tenets of the prize.

“There was a woman on the last four and it just went ’round and ’round … and then suddenly it was like a light going on: ‘It has to be Philip Glass,'” Clark said.

“It was a very strange thing, but absolutely honest and organic all the way through. Nobody tried to push too much one way or another.”