2022 Winner - Frédéric Michaud
2021 Winner - Gohar Manvelyan
2020 Winner - Kelly Lin
Kelly Lin is a Canadian conductor and concert pianist who enjoys an active career performing internationally throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Among her recent piano engagements include recitals with the Oasis Musicale Concert Series in Montreal and the Steinway City Hall in Guangzhou, China. She was also a participant of the Miami Music Festival. She holds a bachelor and master’s degree in piano performance from Â鶹AV’s Schulich School of Music where her teachers were Marina Mdivani and Sara Laimon. As a conductor, Kelly has worked closely under the mentorship of Guillaume Bourgogne and Alexis Hauser and has studied conducting in the United States and Hungary, conducting the Missouri Symphony Orchestra and the Szolnok Symphony Orchestra in concert and rehearsals. This coming fall, Kelly will pursue her graduate studies in conducting at the Schulich School of Music. She is also the recipient of Graduate Excellence Fellowship and Verna-Marie Parr Gélinas and Paul-Marcel Gélinas Scholarship.
2019 Winner – Francis Choinière
Francis Choinière of Montreal is the second recipient of The Hnatyshyn Foundation and Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Fellowship in Conducting. Francis is a promising young conductor, as well as a versatile musician, who is active as a choral and orchestral conductor, concert producer, pianist, composer, and baritone. In addition, he is the co-founder of the Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes (OPCM) with Elie Boissinot, Artistic Director of L’Ensemble Vocal Trame Sonore, Conductor of the Choeur Fernand Lindsay for the Festival de Lanaudière, and chorus master for several concerts at the Bell Centre featuring, among others: Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Hans Zimmer and Ramin Djawadi. Highly engaged in Montreal’s music scene, Francis is also the co-founder and President of GFN Productions, a production company presenting high-calibre concerts at Montreal’s finest venues.
2018 Winner – Adam Keeping
Adam Keeping is passionate about the promotion of opera and symphonic music. The young conductor holds an honours degree in music from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Juris Doctor degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. He has also studied conducting in France and the Czech Republic, piano at Centre d’Arts Orford (Québec), and international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Adam has taught piano and music theory, chaired legal education programs for the Ontario Bar Association, and instructed at Osgoode Hall Law School.
