Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music
Current winner
Rita Ueda for her composition, “As the First Spring Blossoms Awaken Through the Snow” (2021)
Rita Ueda is a Canadian composer based in Vancouver, the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Notable recent works include let us not be the reason why someone out there is praying for peace (2020) and Birds Calling… From the Canada in You (2022), which has been described as “… fresh, thoroughly Canadian, and breathtakingly original” (Musical America Worldwide). She is the winner of the 2022 Azrieli Prize in Canadian Music and the 2014 Penderecki International Competition for Young Composers. Her works have been premiered by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest MÁV Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Modern, and the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. Rita Ueda holds degrees from Simon Fraser University and the California Institute of the Arts, and she is currently completing her PhD at Durham University (UK).
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“VANCOUVER COMPOSER Rita Ueda has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for her composition “As the First Spring Blossoms Awaken Through the Snow”. It was written for sheng, flute, clarinet, santour, setar, oud, percussion, erhu, viola, and double bass.
Ueda also works as a sound designer and music teacher. She was born in Hakodate, Japan, and moved to Vancouver with her family in 1971. She studied composition and sound design at Simon Fraser University and the California Institute of the Arts. She is currently completing her PhD at Durham University in the U.K.
The world premiere of “As the First Spring Blossoms” was performed by Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO); it was recorded at the Orpheum Annex at a performance called “Musique sans frontières” (Music Without Borders) that was presented by Societé de la musique contemporaine du Québec on February 18, 2021 as the opening concert of Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques…”
