TORONTO – Quebec playwright Robert Lepage was named the winner of the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize Thursday morning.
The award is given biennially to a living person who has enriched the human condition through the arts and communication. The previous honouree was singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Lepage is a Canadian actor, playwright and stage director. In 2012, he appeared in the film Mars et Avril.
He will receive $50,000 and will choose an outstanding young artist to receive the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize of $15,000. Lepage will also receive a statuette by Canadian artist Ruth Abernethy.
“It is a good thing to celebrate excellent but I do think it is important to define what excellence is,” said Lepage, in a statement.
“For me, the excellence of an artist should not be measured only by his successes and achievements but also by his courage and capacity to constantly put himself in danger.”
The annoucement was made at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.
Lepage was selected by an international jury made up of American singer-songwriter Patti Smith, U.S. music producer Bob Ezrin, Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, Canadian author John Ralston Saul, Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon and Hong Kong-based philanthropist Sir David Tang.
A ceremony to present the prize will take place later this year.
Also on Thursday, the federal government unveiled a Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque commemorating Gould, the acclaimed Canadian pianist who died in 1982.
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