Photo: Guntar Kravis
Performing Arts
Inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prizes Celebration
2019

On December 12, 2019, the arts community joined friends and family of Johanna Metcalf to celebrate the five prize winners and their protégés. The Ontario artists in music, theatre, dance, and opera were celebrated for the impact they have made on the field and the public, and for the great promise they show in the ongoing pursuit of their ambitious practices. Each prize winner was awarded $25,000; in addition, the winners selected a protégé, who received $5,000. In total, $150,000 in prizes were awarded.

2019 Johannas Winners & Protégés

Sunny Drake & Bilal Baig
Alice Ping Yee Ho & Dr. Roydon Tse
James Rolfe & Sophie Dupuis
Santee Smith & Cody Berry
Maryem Tollar & Demetrios Petsalakis

 

Held at Toronto’s Artscape Daniels Launchpad, the design and installation team got to work early in the day, preparing the space.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Guests gather in front of specially commissioned portraits of the winners and their protégés taken by Luis Mora.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Johanna’s friends Ken and Jean Wright talk to her children’s long-time friend Nancy McNee. Jean was a member of the original board of the Metcalf Foundation.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Prize finalist musician and educator Njacko Backo with his wife Valery Woloshyn.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Tapestry Opera’s General Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori joins Jean-Michel Le Gal, finalist playwright, director, and creator of cultural events and Dustin Peters, a composer and prize nominee.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Artscape’s Director of Fund Development Jane Hopgood chats with Metcalf Performing Arts Program Director Michael Trent.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Anne Wigle speaks with Metcalf Board Chair and Johanna’s daughter Kirsten Hanson.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

The 150 invited guests fête the winners, protégés, and finalists.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Emcee Joël Beddows, Artistic Director and Director of Théâtre français de Toronto, kicks off the evening with a salute to all the finalists.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Metcalf President and CEO Sandy Houston outlines the prize’s history and how the winners were selected in partnership with the Ontario Arts Council.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Board Chair and Joanna’s daughter Kirsten Hanson tells the assembled crowd about the commissioned Seed Vase Prize, designed and created by ceramic artists Thomas Aiken and Kate Hyde. Johanna was a long-time friend of Thomas’s mother and collected and supported the couple’s work.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Prize winner playwright, theatre creator, and performer Sunny Drake and his protégé playwright, director, and actor Bilal Baig.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Winner composer and classical pianist Alice Ping Yee Ho with her protégé Dr. Roydon Tse, a composer, pianist, and educator.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Prize winner composer James Rolfe and his protégé Sophie Dupuis, composer, violinist, and music educator.

Photo: Blair Harley

Winner world music composer and performer Maryem Tollar with her protégé musician Demetrious Petsalakis.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Prize winner Santee Smith, a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, and dancer with her protégé contemporary dance artist Cody Berry.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Students from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory play during the reception; From left to right: Veronika Manchur (violin), Ah Young Kim (violin), Carson Rick (viola), and Mansur Kadirov (cello).

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Photographer Blair Harley captures Siminovitch Prize Director Kathy Siminovitch.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

Choreographer and dancer Peggy Baker with former Theatre Passe Muraille Artistic Director Andy McKim.

Photo: Blair Harley

Metcalf Board Member John McNee with his wife Sue.

Photo: Blair Harley

Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts Executive Director Jacoba Knaapen with Meredith Potter, Producer/General Manager for Volcano Theatre and Peggy Baker Dance Projects.

Photo: Guntar Kravis

City of Toronto’s Manager, Cultural Partnerships Sally Han and Claire Hopkinson, Director and CEO, Toronto Arts Council and Foundation.

Photo: Blair Harley

Ontario Arts Council CEO Carolyn Vesely, OAC Officer Carolyn Gloude, and OAC Associate Director of Granting Chris Black.

Photo: Blair Harley

The Office of Gilbert Li design team created the evening’s look. From left to right: Sara Wong, Alina Skyson, Gilbert Li, and Konor Abrahams.

Photo: Blair Harley