Nominees for the 2024 West Coast Music Awards were announced on Tuesday, May 14, and they included CMC Associate Composers Dorothy Chang, Emilie Cecilia LeBel, Farshid Samandari, Jeffrey Ryan, and Vincent Ho, as well as Centrediscs artists Allegra Chamber Orchestra (performing music by AC Alice Ping Yee Ho), Suzie LeBlanc (performing music by AC Jérôme Blais), and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (performing music by AC Bramwell Tovey). Recordings by the other Classical Artist or Ensemble of the Year nominees also featured works by ACs Jocelyn Morlock, Tobin Stokes, Jared Miller, Iman Habibi, and Emilie Cecilia LeBel, while Vincent Ho’s nominated composition was featured on Cheng² Duo’s 2023 Centrediscs release. Congratulations to all nominees!

Winners will be announced at this year’s BreakOut West festival and conference, which will be held September 25–29 in Saskatoon. Visit https://breakoutwest.ca/awards/music-awards for the full list of nominees.

 

Classical Artist or Ensemble of the Year (Sponsored by Canadian Music Centre {CMC})
Allegra Chamber Orchestra – BC
Emily Carr String Quartet – BC
Suzie LeBlanc – BC
UltraViolet – AB
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra – BC

 

Classical Composer of the Year
Dorothy Chang – Fifteen feet Closer to the Sky “All That Glitters” – BC
Emilie Cecilia LeBel – field studies “and the higher leaves of the trees seemed to shimmer in the last of the sunlight’s lingering touch of them” – AB
Farshid Samandari – Light of Lights “Light of Lights” – BC
Jeffrey Ryan – A Left Coast “Everything Already Lost” – BC
Vincent Ho – Cheng² Duo “Horizon Images” – AB

 

Francophone Artist of the Year (Sponsored by APCM {Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique})
Alexis Normand – SK
Beau Nectar – SK
Fire & Smoke – MB
Missy D – BC
Suzie LeBlanc – BC