The Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting is a $10 000 prize awarded by the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) every two years to support a selected choral conductor in furthering his/her professional career and enhancing his/her choral conducting abilities. [1]
The award recognizes excellence in emerging conductors. Candidates are considered based on artistic merit as demonstrated by his or her abilities, cumulative body of work, and contribution to the art form. [2]
The prize has not been awarded since 2018. [3]
In 1971, the Leslie Bell Singers Alumnae and friends of the late Leslie Richard Bell established the Leslie Bell Scholarship Fund as a tribute to the conductor. Bell was a choir conductor, educator, writer, arranger and composer. [1]
In 1987, OAC reduced the award to a biennial prize cycle. In 2004, no award was made, and the prize was postponed while OAC undertook a review of the selection and adjudication process. No further awards have been made after 2018. [3]
Choirs Ontario manages the selection process. Candidates submit a package composed of a curriculum vitae, letters of reference and audio-visual support material by mail to Choirs Ontario by the specified deadline. [2]
Choirs Ontario assembles a selection panel of choral musicians to evaluate the submissions. Panelists must have the following qualifications; a broad spectrum of knowledge and experience in choral music, ability to provide fair and objective opinions, ability to articulate their opinions and to work in a group decision-making environment. [2]
Prior to the selection meeting each panellist becomes familiar with the award and its assessment criteria. Additionally the panellist reviews each package submitted by the candidates and make reference notes in context to the award’s assessment criteria. Individuals selected to be on the panel are not to disclose their role. For transparency, the names of panellists is released with results following each competition. Upon discovering a conflict with any of the candidates, a panellist will remove themselves from the selection process. [2]
At the selection meeting, all of the panellists review each of the candidate's submissions to come to a group decision and recommend the winner. The panel is required to keep the discussions during the panel meeting and contents of all submissions confidential. [2]
To be a candidate for this award, an individual must meet the following criteria; [2]
Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's College of Arts and Sciences, the college under which the historic institution has been reorganized, consists of Westminster Choir College as well as three additional schools.
The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by Ontario's Premier at the time, John Robarts.
Jean Ashworth Bartle, is a Canadian choral conductor, teacher, and Founder/Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Children's Chorus.
Donald M. Kendrick is Music Director at Sacred Heart Church in Sacramento, California, where he conducts the Schola Cantorum and Vox Nova, and Founder and Artistic Director of the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra. From 1985–2018, Kendrick was Director of Choral Activities at California State University, Sacramento. In 2007 he was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the Capitol Section of the California Music Educators Association (CMEA). He is also the founder and past artistic director of the Sacramento Children's Chorus.
Susan Elizabeth Digby, Baroness Eatwell OBE, known as Suzi Digby, is a British choral conductor and music educator.
Mark Anthony Carpio is a choral conductor, choirmaster, piano accompanist and a countertenor, who is the present choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Kilyawan Boys Choir, Voces Aurorae, Pansol Choir, and the Madz Schola Cantorum. He is also a faculty member at the Conducting and Choral Ensemble Department of the University of the Philippines College of Music in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Maria Guinand is an internationally renowned choral conductor.
Zlatina Deliradeva is a Bulgarian choral conductor.
Dr. William John Dehning was an American conductor, teacher, and author who spent almost his entire career in the collegiate realm. He was known primarily for his work as conductor of the University of Southern California Thornton Chamber Choir and as author of the book, Chorus Confidential: Decoding the Secrets of the Choral Art, published in 2003. Under his leadership, the Thornton Chamber Choir won seven prizes in international European competitions, including Grand Prizes in Varna, Bulgaria and Tours, France. After winning the choral competition with the USC Chamber Choir in Bulgaria, Dehning was awarded the Judges' Conducting Prize by a panel of ten judges in 1999. During his tenure, the ensemble also appeared at American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conventions six times, including nationals in 2001 and 2005. They also completed a tour of East Asia in 2006, performing at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. While at Northern Michigan University from 1970–1972, Dehning was the founder of the Marquette Choral Society, which is still active. Later, he was from 1985-1995 the founder/conductor of the California Choral Company, a semi-professional chamber chorus that attained a reputation in Europe as well as in the United States. As Chairman of the USC Department of Choral Music, Dehning was awarded the first annual Dean’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was also the 2007 recipient of the Thornton School's Ramo Award. Dehning was one of four founding members of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), which held its first national conference in San Antonio in 2006.
Gérard’d du Toit is an International figure in the Choral world who has drawn attention when he conducted the Drakensberg Boys’ choir in Europe in 1988, Namibia and South Africa from 1985 to 1989. His involvement with the Drakensberg Boys Choir school led to his post-graduate studies at the University of Pretoria specialising in choral conducting and writing a thesis on the formal training of the boys voice when mutating. It his energetic and spirited leadership with the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Choir and the University of UKZN Bel Canto Chamber Choir from 1996 that led to examining and adjudicating in Europe such as Estonia ; presenting a week-long choral course on South African Choral music in Ljubljana (Slovenia) under the auspices of the Ljubljana Madrigalisti (2005), acting as the SA partner of the Choir World Games in Xiamen, China (2006), and on the jury at the prestigious Cecilia Seghizzi International Choir Competition.
The St Monica Choir was a Maltese polyphonic choir founded in 1964 by Sr Beniamina Portelli. The choir was often praised as one of the leading polyphonic choirs in Malta. The choir's music repertoire deviated from sacred to popular, early to contemporary. It dissolved in 2018, with most of its choristers remaining in the St. Monica Vocal Ensemble.
Gerald Richard Fagan is considered one of Canada's premier choral conductors. He is the former Conductor and Artistic Director of Fanshawe Chorus London, The Gerald Fagan Singers, and the Concert Players Orchestra. He has been married to Marlene Fagan since 1961. They have five children; Leslie, Louise, Judy, Jennifer and Jonathon.
Nelson Kwei is a Singaporean choral conductor. He is currently conductor of Victoria Junior College choir, Victoria Chorale, Tanjong Katong Secondary School choir, Catholic High School choir, Victoria School choir and The Vocal Consort. An alumnus of Anglican High School and Temasek Junior College, he studied mathematics at the National University of Singapore and choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
André de Quadros is a conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and human rights activist.
Bernie Sherlock is an Irish choral conductor, adjudicator, teacher, and lecturer in music.
Diana Victoria Sáez is a Puerto Rican conductor, composer, and pianist. She is most widely known as the founder and artistic director of Coral Cantigas, a Latin American chamber choir active in Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 2016. Sáez is currently Director of Choral Activities in the Department of Music, College of Fine Arts and Communication, Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Suzana Kostić is a Serbian conductor, music educator and music scholar. Her performance specialties are choral music and large-scale works for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. She is also known for the premiere performances of works by contemporary Balkan composers.
The Oakville Children's Choir is an internationally recognized multi-level community children’s choir that provides children in the Oakville, Ontario community with music education, leadership development and performance opportunities. The organization has six choirs composed of children between the ages of 5 and 18, under the artistic direction of Sarah Morrison.
Kristiina Poska is an Estonian conductor.
Stephanie Martin is a Canadian composer, conductor, and associate professor of music at York University's School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design.