In Thursday’s (6/18) Globe and Mail, James Bradshaw reports, “Saxophonist Wallace Halladay has won the $25,000 Virginia Parker Prize, given each year since 1982 by the Canada Council for the Arts to a classical music performer under age 32 who shows outstanding talent. Halladay, who has yet to turn 30, is a virtuoso who is comfortable in multiple styles, both classical and contemporary. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto, and is a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Esprit Orchestra. Halladay joins a distinguished list of past winners of all musical stripes that includes Jon Kimura Parker, Louis Lortie, Michael Schade, Karina Gauvin, James Ehnes, Isabel Bayrakdarian and last year’s winner, Jean-Phillipe Sylvestre.”
Posted June 19, 2009