Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Edouard Lock, Bryan Adams, Buffy Sainte-Marie
garner GG awards
The Montreal Gazette
23 février 2010

Photo: Pierre Obendrauf, The Gazette

Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean at 2010 Governor General Performing Arts Awards announcement in Montreal on Tuesday February 23, 2010. From left: Mohammed Faris and Yulanda Faris (Ramon Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism), actor and former director of the Stratford Festival Robin Phillips (lifetime achievement); actress, director and broadcaster Françoise Faucher (lifetime achievement); Jean-Daniel Lafond (husband of the Governor General); Governor General Michaëlle Jean, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (National Arts Centre Award for achievement); impresario and former manager of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Walter Homburger (lifetime achievement); and 2004 GG recipient Gordon Pinsent, with the actor he is mentoring, Kevin Loring. Not present, but also honoured: choreographer Edouard Lock, and singer/songwriters Bryan Adams and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

MONTREAL - World-renowned singer-songwriters Buffy Sainte-Marie and Bryan Adams, along with four other Canadian artists, have been named the recipients this year's Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

The awards will be presented at Ottawa's Rideau Hall on April 30 by Governor General Michaelle Jean.

"Time will never erase the pathways that these great performing artists have traced, both for us, the public, and for young generations of creators," Jean said in a statement.

"For they are pathways of light that cross through our lives and shed a brighter light on everything they touch. And so we thank them for all of those rays of hope they shine on our world, which would otherwise be a darker and duller place."

The other recipients are: actress, director and broadcaster Francoise Faucher; impresario and former manager of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Walter Homburger; choreographer and founder of dance troupe La La La Human Steps, Edouard Lock; and actor and former director of the Stratford Festival, Robin Phillips.

Each winner receives $25,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.

The awards are accompanied by two others. The Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts was given this year to Mohammed and Yulanda Faris, who have contributed time and money to opera, dance, visual arts, and literature in Vancouver for nearly 40 years. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who has conducted several international orchestras and is musical director of the Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal, received the National Arts Centre Award for "exceptional achievement over the past performance year."