After months of secrecy and excitement the big news is finally out. On April 9 the 2015 GGPAA recipients were announced!
The recipients of the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award are:
Walter Boudreau 
Composer, conductor and artistic director
Atom Egoyan
Film and stage director, visual artist and screenwriter
Diana Leblanc
Actress and director
Sarah McLachlan
Singer, songwriter, musician and humanitarian
R.H. Thomson
Actor, director, producer and arts advocate
The Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts recipient is:
Michael M. Koerner
The National Arts Centre Award recipient is :
Jean-Marc Vallée
Filmmaker
Congratulations to all our wonderful laureates. We are grateful for their talent, generosity and for all they have done for Canadian culture, here and around the world.
On our website you’ll find more information about our laureates, the Awards in general and about the Gala celebration at the National Arts Centre. It’s the party of the season in Ottawa and it’s not to be missed. Tickets are
on sale to the general public now. If you live in Ottawa or are planning on visiting, May 30 would be a great time to be in the city. The evening begins with red carpet arrivals prior to what is sure to be a star-studded spectacle of performances honouring our laureates. The night wraps up with dancing and champagne. We celebrate the performing arts as they should be – with glitz, glamour and unforgettable performances.
We are also delighted to continue a
Mentorship Program initiated in 2008, a collaboration between the National Arts Centre and the GGPAAF. The program pairs a past laureate with a mid-career artist. This year the participants are composer
Howard Shore (Lifetime 2011) as the Mentor and Nicole Lizée, composer from Montreal, as the protégée. To learn more about these incredible artists check out the Mentorship Program news release.
Five of our laureates attended the announcement both in person and thanks to the use of technology. With the help of FaceTime and iPad Airs we were able to bring together recipients at the
Belfry Theatre in Victoria, the
Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver and the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto who all appeared on screen at the
Phi Centre in Montreal. It is always a wonderful moment to see the recipients together for the first time. After the recipients were announced, guests and members of the media chatted with the laureates and passed on their congratulations, speaking to them on iMacs. Montreal resident and 2015 laureate Walter Boudreau and mentorship protégée Nicole Lizée were at the Phi Centre for the event and mingled with guests and the press, creating an exciting and decidedly artistic vibe!
Stay tuned for photos of the event on our website. If you missed the live announcement,
watch it now. There is so much more to come, especially with the Gala weekend on the horizon. Ottawa will be abuzz, we hope you can be part of it. You can also be a part of celebrating the arts by making a GGPAA nomination. Go to
ggpaa.ca/nominate to see how it easy it is to put your favourite performing artist forward as a candidate for an award. We’ll be looking for your submission!
You can join in the conversation on Twitter @GovGPAA and #ggawards or on
Facebook.
Jami