Vancouver composer Rita Ueda wins top national prize for new chamber music

Her “As the First Spring Blossoms Awaken Through the Snow” wins Jules Léger Prize

By Janet Smith

Ruth Ueda. Photo by Alistair Eagle

VANCOUVER COMPOSER Rita Ueda has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for her composition “As the First Spring Blossoms Awaken Through the Snow”. It was written for sheng, flute, clarinet, santour, setar, oud, percussion, erhu, viola, and double bass.

Ueda also works as a sound designer and music teacher. She was born in Hakodate, Japan, and moved to Vancouver with her family in 1971. She studied composition and sound design at Simon Fraser University and the California Institute of the Arts. She is currently completing her PhD at Durham University in the U.K.

The world premiere of “As the First Spring Blossoms” was performed by Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO); it was recorded at the Orpheum Annex at a performance called "Musique sans frontières" (Music Without Borders) that was presented by Societé de la musique contemporaine du Québec on February 18, 2021 as the opening concert of Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques.

In her composer’s notes at the time, Ueda wrote: “First Spring flowers have always filled me with hope and joy. They withstand the long, cold winters by patiently biding their time underneath layers of snow and ice. Then, when the time is right, they always manage to navigate through the frozen ground to greet the warmth of the sun. The year 2020 was one of the worst winters we have ever experienced, and many of us have been left exhausted and traumatized. I hope the coming year will be filled with strength, kindness, patience, and recovery. We can all begin our healing journey like the first spring blossoms that pierce through the snow.”

The Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music awards $7,500 to Canadian professional composers, encouraging the creation of avant-garde chamber music and to foster its performance by Canadian ensembles

Ueda’s works have been premiered by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest MÁV Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Modern, and more.

Ueda’s other recent works include "let us not be the reason why someone out there is praying for peace" (2020) and "Birds Calling… From the Canada in You" (2022). She is the winner of the 2022 Azrieli Prize in Canadian Music and the 2014 Penderecki International Competition for Young Composers.  

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