Ottawa Citizen

Hewitt, Finley, Current bring Junos to Ottawa

Awards night in Hamilton also sees Morissette enter Hall of Fame

- PETER ROBB OTTAWA CITIZEN

Three classical music artists from Ottawa captured Juno Awards Saturday night in Hamilton.

The Juno weekend also featured the induction of Ottawa native Alanis Morissette into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Ottawa’s queen of the piano Angela Hewitt picked up the third Juno of her illustriou­s career with her recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos No. 22 and 24 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, under the baton of Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu.

She won in the category Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompanim­ent. The album was recorded live in Southam Hall in the summer of 2013 and was the first major CD recorded by the NACO in a decade. The disc was the third collaborat­ion between Hewitt and Lintu.

Ottawa native and world-class baritone Gerald Finley has also won his third Juno for a recording of Schubert’s Winterreis­se with Julius Drake on the piano.

The recording won the category Classical Album of the Year Vocal or Choral Performanc­e. Finley, who lives in the U.K., has become a fixture on operatic stages around the world.

Ottawa’s third Juno for classical music went to Brian Current, a graduate of Colonel By High School who won Classical Compositio­n of the Year for his opera called Airline Icarus.

Current has written that the spark for his opera, which takes place on a doomed commercial flight, was the downing of a Korean Air jetliner in 1983 by a Soviet fighter jet. Current lives in Toronto these days.

Other Ottawa-area nominees: Kira Isabella: The country sweetheart from Orléans was among the candidates for the Country Album of the Year award. Her sophomore record, Caffeine & Big Dreams, lost to Dallas Smith. JW-Jones: The blues singer-guitarist’s latest album, Belmont Boulevard, lost to Montreal’s Steve Hill in the Blues Album of the Year category. Jeremy Fisher: The Lemon Squeeze is the singer-songwriter’s first album written in his new hometown of Ottawa. It lost to Bahamas in the Adult Alternativ­e Album category. Socalled: The multi-talented hiphop artist from Chelsea scored a surprise nomination in the Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble category for Akoka: Reframing Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, a collaborat­ion with David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, Jonathan Crow & Geoffrey Burleson. The award was won by an album featuring the great Canadian violinist James Ehnes. Daniel Lanois: The Hull-raised rock legend has already earned eight Junos in his career, mostly for his production work. This year, his Flesh and Machine album was nominated for Best Instrument­al Album along with the Sultans of String for the album Symphony! The Sultans’ chief creative force, violinist Chris McKhool, grew up in Ottawa, but now lives in Toronto. Both lost to the group Quartango and their album Encuentro. Tomson Highway: The Cree playwright, novelist and songwriter/ pianist hails from sub-Arctic Manitoba but divides his time between northern Ontario and a house in Gatineau. His album, The (Post) Mistress, was competing for Aboriginal Album of the Year, which went to Tanya Tagaq. Menno Versteeg: Although best known for the music he makes with his band, Hollerado, the Manotick lad was the art director for the punk band, Pup, and earned a nod in the Best Recording Package category. The Juno went to Roberta Hansen and Mike Latschisla­w for their work on the album Pilgrimage by Steve Bell.

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