ARC Ensemble Recording of Music by Suppressed Ukrainian Composer Nominated for a 2022 JUNO Award

Nominations for the 2022 JUNO Awards have been announced and the ARC Ensemble (Artists of The Royal Conservatory) is nominated for Classical Album of the Year, Small Ensemble for their latest recording Klebanov: Chamber Works, featuring the music of persecuted Ukrainian composer Dmitri Klebanov.  

Nominated for its third Grammy Award in 2016, the ARC Ensemble is among Canada's most distinguished cultural ambassadors. Performing a wide range of music, its focus remains the research and recovery of music that was suppressed and marginalized under the 20th century's repressive regimes. Klebanov, a Jewish Ukrainian nationalist, dedicated his First Symphony to the memory of the victims of Babi Yar, the massacre of 34,000 Jews in a Kyiv ravine. Stalin banned the work, and Klebanov’s music never found its rightful place in the repertoire. He died in 1987, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

“The news from Ukraine is both hard to watch and impossible to ignore,” said Simon Wynberg, Artistic Director of the ARC Ensemble, about the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. “We are thinking of Jewish-Ukrainian composer, Dmitri Klebanov, whose career was a casualty of Soviet-era cultural suppression – his works nearly forgotten under Stalin's regime. May we listen to his music today and not forget the terrible cost of conflict and war.” 

The following RCM alumni, faculty, Honorary Fellows, and Koerner Hall artists have also been nominated for this year’s JUNO Awards: 

• Jan Lisiecki (RCM alumnus) for Chopin: Complete Nocturnes (Classical Album of the Year, Solo Artist) 
• Arkells (Mike De Angelis, Nick Dika, and Dan Griffin, RCM alumni) for Blink Once (Rock Album of the Year); and Group of the Year 
• Joshua Hopkins (RCM alumnus) for Songs for Murdered Sisters (Classical Album of the Year, Solo Artist) 
• Emily D’Angelo (Koerner Hall artist) for enargeia (Classical Album of the Year, Solo Artist) 
• Jon Kimura Parker (RCM alumnus), Jens Lindemann (RCM alumnus and Honorary Fellow), Matt Catingub & Canadian All Star JazzPops Orchestra for Then is Now Rhapsody in Blue (Instrumental Album of the Year) 
• Tate McRae (RCM alumna) for TOO YOUNG TO BE SAD (Pop Album of the Year, and Album of the Year) 
• Charlotte Day Wilson (RCM alumnus) for ALPHA (Songwriter of the Year; Jack Wilson Producer of the Year; and Traditional R&B/Soul Recording of the Year) 
• Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Koerner Hall artist) earned three nominations: one for Introspection: Solo Piano Sessions (Classical Album of the Year, Solo Artist); and two for his work as conductor for Sibelius 3 Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal; and Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 & Symphonic Dances The Philadelphia Orchestra (Classical Album of The Year, Large Ensemble) 
• Andrew Wan (RCM alumnus) and Charles Richard-Hamelin (Koerner Hall Artist) for Beethoven: Sonates pour violon et piano / Violin Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 5 (Classical Album of the Year, Small Ensemble) 
• Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà (Koerner Hall artists) for Immersion (Classical Album of the Year, Small Ensemble) 
• Miriam Khalil (RCM alumna) is nominated with Against the Grain Theatre, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Johannes Debus for Messiah/Complex (Classical Album of the Year, Large Ensemble)
• Bahamas (Koerner Hall artist) for Live To Tape: Volume I – EP (Adult Alternative Album of the Year) 
• Holly Cole (Koerner Hall artist) for Montreal (Live) (Vocal Jazz Album of The Year) 
• Elizabeth Shepherd (Koerner Hall artist) and Michael Occhipinti (Faculty, Oscar Peterson School of Music (formerly the Royal Conservatory School) for The Weight Of Hope (Vocal Jazz Album of the Year) 
• Andrés Vial (RCM alumnus) for When Is Ancient? (Jazz Album of the Year, Solo) 
• The David Restivo Trio (Koerner Hall artists) for Arancina (Jazz Album of the Year, Group)
• Avataar, featuring Michael Occhipinti (Faculty, Oscar Peterson School of Music (formerly the Royal Conservatory School) for Worldview (Jazz Album of the Year, Group)
• Kati Agócs (Koerner Hall artist) for Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (Classical Composition of the Year) 
• Donovan Woods (Koerner Hall artist) for Without People (Contemporary Roots Album of the Year) 
• AHI (Koerner Hall artist) for Prospect (Contemporary Roots Album of the Year) 

The 51st Annual JUNO Awards will be broadcast live from Budweiser Stage in Toronto on May 15 at 8 p.m. ET on CBC and hosted by RCM alumnus, Simu Liu.