Sir Elton John has been named the 2025 recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize. A variety of inventive skills have received the award through the years. John is just the second to come back from the (broadly outlined) rock world, following the late Leonard Cohen.
The award was established in 1987 by The Glenn Gould Basis to honor the legacy of legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, whose 1956 album Bach: Goldberg Variations is taken into account a basic. Gould died in 1982 at age 50. He acquired a posthumous lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2013.
“After spending many years admiring the virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s work, I’m awestruck and honored to obtain this award,” John mentioned in an announcement. John, after all, has received numerous lifetime achievement awards, together with the Kennedy Heart Honors, the Gershwin Prize for Fashionable Track, a Grammy Legend Award, the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Corridor of Fame and induction into Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame.
The Glenn Gould Prize is awarded biennially and features a CDN$100,000 money award for the Laureate, who additionally selects an distinctive younger artist to obtain the CDN$25,000 Glenn Gould Protégé Prize.
“In choosing our Laureate, Elton John, we selected to honor somebody who has nice inventive accomplishments, however whose life and whose artwork has been translated into one thing a lot better than simply efficiency or the consumption of music and issues they’ve created,” mentioned the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada and this 12 months’s jury chair for the Glenn Gould Prize.
“Elton John has used his huge expertise and his nice success to alter lives. He’s been brave in taking up causes, whether or not AIDS, LGBTQ+ rights, dependancy and all types of points that weren’t in style when he engaged with them and he was ready to take the great success that his musical expertise had given him to make a distinction on the earth. And from our perspective that represents the best stage of accomplishment for an artist and celebrates the reminiscence of Glenn Gould in one of the best ways.”
“Elton John embodies the spirit of inventive excellence, innovation, and profound humanity that The Glenn Gould Prize was created to have a good time,” added Brian Levine, CEO, Glenn Gould Basis. “Glenn Gould’s imaginative and prescient was one in every of boundless creativity, fearless originality and an unshakable dedication to utilizing music as a drive for good on the earth. Sir Elton has exemplified these beliefs all through his extraordinary profession, not solely along with his unimaginable musical catalogue and immense expertise but in addition championing rising artists throughout genres and utilizing his international platform to encourage transformational humanistic change. His enduring impression on music and tradition makes him a really good recipient of this honor.”
The announcement of The Glenn Gould Prize Laureate was made throughout a public occasion at Kings Place in London. The occasion featured a Q&A session with the jury and performances by South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza and 17-year-old Canadian piano prodigy Ryan Wang.
Dwelling candidates of any nationality are eligible for The Glenn Gould Prize, with nominations coming from the general public. Disciplines embody however should not restricted to musical creation or efficiency, theater, dance, choreography, writing, design, movie, tv, radio and broadcasting, visible artwork, multimedia, writing, expertise/innovation, structure and design.
The prize will likely be introduced to John throughout a particular gala celebration to be held in Toronto this fall.
Right here’s a whole checklist of recipients of the Glenn Gould Prize:
1987: R. Murray Shafer
1990: Yehudi Menuhin
1993: Oscar Peterson
1996: Tōru Takemitsu
1999: Yo-Yo Ma
2002: Pierre Boulez
2005: André Previn
2008: José Antonio Abreu
2011: Leonard Cohen
2013: Robert Lepage
2015: Philip Glass
2018: Jessye Norman
2020: Alanis Obomsawin
2022: Gustavo Dudamel
2025: Sir Elton John
