DEVELOPING ARTISTS GRANTS
2008 Grant Recipient

Classical Music (Orchestral Instrument) Winner
Emily Belvedere

Twenty-year-old harpist Emily Belvedere of Richmond Hill, Ontario, received her high school education through home schooling. She has been taking music lessons for twelve years, nine of those with Sarah Davidson, harpist with the Canadian Opera Company. She is currently enrolled in the post-secondary Performance Diploma Program at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she has just completed her first year of study with Judy Loman.

Emily has won numerous awards at music festivals throughout Ontario including first prize from the Toronto Chapter of the American Harp Society (ARCT category) in 2007 and first-prize for harp in the 2006 Guelph Kiwanis Music Festival.

Judy Loman, Emily's harp teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music, describes her as "one of the most talented students that I have had the pleasure to teach".  Says Ms. Loman, "She has a natural aptitude for the harp, is intelligent, creative, and has innate musical taste. She plays with complete confidence and her performances reflect the musical ideas implied in the compositions she is playing. She has the ability to stir her audiences and I predict a great future for her."

The Hnatyshyn Foundation jury, composed of Gwen Hoebig, Nora Bumanis and Brian Sand, were very impressed with Emily's dramatic audition performance: "Very musical, great drama and musical understanding, wonderful dynamics, shaping and rhythm. A very engrossing performance!"