Trombonist wins $10,000 Edmonton Music Prize
There shall be no further disparagement of humble slide trombone – for one of its top local players has just won the Edmonton Music Prize.
Audrey Ochoa takes the grand prize of $10,000, chosen from a short list of 10.
“This sort of encouragement – award winning – is some nice feedback,” she says, “as we artists are all full of self doubt, and are probably the most critical of our own work.”
The city’s go-to trombonist has been a fixture of the Edmonton music scene for years, in every genre and capacity, arranger, performer, composer, especially jazz, and recently on stage in the Citadel Theatre’s production of Hadestown. She released her debut album Trombone and Other Delights in 2014, and is now honoured for her latest album, Afterthought.
Nuela Charles and Marco Claveria take the second and third place Edmonton Music Prizes, respectively, at $1,000 each.
The announcements were made last night at a reception at the ATB’s Branch for Arts and Culture.
Also revealed on this night were the winners of the Edmonton Film Prize – $10,000 going to Zsofia Opra-Szabo for her animated short Sophia. Cree filmmaker Alexandra Lazarowich is a runner-up, winning $1,000. His short film Fast Horse was also just awarded a special jury award at the Sundance Film Festival. The other $1,000 film prize runner-up is Adam Scorgie for his film Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story. Scorgie was the winner of last year’s Edmonton Film Prize.
The winners in each category were selected from dozens of submissions, and the project is a partnership between Alberta Music, the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA), and the Edmonton Arts Council.
