The Azrieli Foundation has announced a new $50,000 cash award for a Canadian who composes a new major work, to be performed by the Montreal-based Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, led by director Lorraine Vaillancourt.

Submissions are to be received in February and the winning work is to be premiered alongside other Azrieli Music Prize winning works at a gala concert scheduled for October 2020.

Plans are for future rounds of the new prize to be offered for other leading Canadian ensembles and performance groups as part of the goal to expand the Canadian music repertoire.

Apart from the cash prize and gala concert the new prize includes a recording contract with Analekta and related promotional activities, and an international performance date organized by the Azrieli foundation, as well as pre-concert education and outreach events.

The total value of the package is said to be $200,000 for each winner, which the foundation says is the largest such prize in Canada and among the world’s most lucrative. It is the third prize to be offered biennially through the Azrieli Music Prize program.