Rush wins Governor General’s Award
Rush may be perennially overlooked by the U.S. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the band is getting an award for lifetime achievement at home.
The rock power trio has won a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. The band members are among the laureates announced Tuesday in Calgary.
The other winners are:
– Janina Fialkowska, a classical concert pianist with a 35-year career as an international star.
– Paul-André Fortier, a dancer and choreographer who has created 49 original works, including Loin, très loin for dancer Peggy Baker and Cabane for his own company Fortier-Danse-Création.
– Denis Marleau, a Quebec theatre director, stage designer and artistic director who is regularly featured at Montreal’s Festival TransAmériques and at festivals around the world, including the Avignon Festival.
– Deepa Mehta, the film director and screenwriter who created Oscar-nominee Water and is to release Midnight’s Children later this year.
– Mary Walsh, the Newfoundland-born writer and comedian, who starred in CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes and is soon to give a solo show in Toronto.
Each laureate receives a cash award of $25,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a commemorative medallion struck by the Royal Canadian Mint.
Two more awards were announced in Calgary on Tuesday:
– Earlaine Collins, a supporter of the performing arts for 45 years, won the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts. She has donated time, talent and capital to organizations such as the Canadian Opera Company (COC), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic.
– Des McAnuff, Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director and a Tony winner for his production of Jersey Boys, won the National Arts Centre Award, presented for exceptional achievement over the past year. McAnuff helmed the acclaimed Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar that went on to San Diego and New York.