Governor-General’s Performing Arts Awards
James Bradshaw - The Globe and Mail
February 24, 2010

Rock star Bryan Adams, theatre and film director Robin Phillips and impresario Walter Homburger are among the winners of the Governor-General’s Performing Arts Awards for lifetime artistic achievement, announced in Montreal yesterday.

Joining them are 60-year stage veteran Françoise Faucher, dance innovator Édouard Lock, and musician and aboriginal-rights advocate Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Vancouver’s Mohammed and Yulanda Faris will be given the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts, particularly for their focus on youth engagement in the arts.

And 34-year-old Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has won the National Arts Centre Award for exceptional achievement over the past year.

Nézet-Séguin and the six lifetime-achievement honorees each receive $25,000 and a commemorative medallion from the Royal Canadian Mint, while the Farises receive a medallion and a specially commissioned artwork.

The Globe and Mail spoke with three of the laureates about their newly won decorations.

Bryan Adams
Why him: Bryan Adams has done it all, from 18 Juno Awards and a Grammy to collaborations with everyone from Elton John to Luciano Pavarotti. And he’s just marked another milestone, performing for tens of millions of viewers at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics.

What it means: “It’s a rich tapestry of talented people. I'm seriously honoured to be among them. To be honest, and you can ask anyone that works with me, I'm shy of receiving awards of any kind. The biggest reward is the continuation of the work, and there's always lots to do.”

At work: “The Olympics were certainly one of the largest audiences I've had the opportunity to play for. Doing The Wall with [Pink Floyd’s] Roger Waters in Berlin was the other massive one.”

Next up: “Perhaps because I've not had a family, I've got this perpetual desire to create something from nothing. Even if I never made a penny from it, I'd still be carving away, because it makes me happy.”

Édouard Lock
Why him: The 55-year-old Lock has been a force in Canadian dance since his debut in 1975. A noted choreographer, he founded the internationally successful company La La La Human Steps and has taken his choreography, known for pushing human limits, to dozens of countries.
What it means: “You get excited for your next project and then that project leads to another project. These types of awards, they just stop that momentum for a little bit. You do tend to reflect backwards and pause a little bit.”

At work: “You don't actually decide to tour – you have to be invited. We've had long relationships, we started touring in Europe in 1982. So in some ways, some of the European cities know us almost as well as some of the Canadian cities.”

Next up: “Dance has progressed in a whole bunch of ways. ... It's sort of like watching a clock. If you stare at it, you don't see it. But if you just do something else and come back to it, it's changed – it's a bit like that.”

Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Why him: Groomed in Montreal, Nézet-Séguin just finished his first season as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, is principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic and made a hugely successful debut in 2009 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

What it means: “I was so excited and so honoured to receive this, because it’s coming as the most unexpected gift. Of course, when I line up what has happened in that year, I start to be almost scared of myself.”

At work: “I feel that now there's very much an international train that I need to take. But this is always keeping in mind that once I will have made a world tour of things, I want to always keep some time for Canada, to come back.”
Up next: “Prior to that sort of skyrocket speed of the past two or three years, I spent a very good seven or eight years founding my own ensemble and getting my tools ready here in Montreal. ... This gave me the experience and the tools to be able to sustain that kind of speed now.”