The Choquette-Symcox Award is the joint initiative of two great music lovers: Fernand Choquette and Peter Symcox.
Created in 2010, this annual prize aims to support the talent and virtuosity of a young Quebec musician in his or her career development. It is accompanied by a $5,000 excellence scholarship.
Each year, the winner is chosen at the discretion of the JM Canada Foundation and Jeunesses Musicales Canada.
Support the Choquette-Symcox Award:
2026 Recipient: Edyelwys Da Silva
Originally from Brazil, Edyelwys Da Silva is a flutist and pedagogue based in Montreal. He has performed in numerous international festivals across South America, North America, and Europe, and has received several distinctions, including First Prize as Young Soloist with the UFRN Orchestra and at the Eleazar de Carvalho Festival, as well as the Christian Lardé and Marie-Claire Jamet scholarship and multiple excellence scholarships from the Université de Montréal.
A Jeunesses Musicales Canada artist for the 2025–2026 season, he has just completed a tour across Quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes.
“ In an ever-evolving artistic world, receiving the Choquette-Symcox Award from the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation represents much more than recognition: it is a deeply human gesture of trust, carrying momentum and hope. This support comes at a pivotal moment in my journey and encourages me to persevere and bring to life projects that are deeply meaningful to me. I receive this award with immense gratitude, fully aware of its real and lasting impact on the next stages of my artistic path.”
– Edyelwys Da Silva
Mezzo-soprano Justine Ledoux, a resident artist at the Opéra de Montréal, is the cover for the title role in Carmen. She recently stood out as Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at Brott Opera. A graduate of the Conservatoire de Montréal, she continues her training with Lena Hellström-Färnlöf.
“I am deeply grateful to have been chosen for the Choquette-Symcox Scholarship from the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation. […] Their support has marked key moments in my journey and truly made a difference in my life as an artist. […] The Foundation holds a special place in my heart — it is much more than financial support; it’s a true family that believes in its artists. I feel lucky to be part of it.”
Meagan Milatz is “a remarkable pianist […] her expressive palette seems limitless” (Le Devoir). Winner of the 2024 Prix Opus “Discovery of the Year”, Meagan regularly collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as Avi Avital, Andrew Wan, Olivier Charlier, Stefan Dohr, Matt Haimovitz, Øystein Baadsvik, and Cho Liang Lin, among many others. Her first album recorded for ATMA Classique was released in December 2023, featuring early works for fortepiano and natural horn with Louis-Pierre Bergeron and showcasing her interest in playing on historic pianos. In 2022, Meagan was named co-artistic director of Concerts HausMusique with cellist Cameron Crozman.
Internationally, Meagan has performed at the New Ross Piano Festival in Ireland in 2023 and at the Edeta Arts International Chamber Music Festival in Spain, as well as in concerts in Scotland, France, Italy and Portugal. She won the first pan-Canadian tour with violinist Amy Hillis ( meagan&amy ), representing a series of 50 concerts organized across Canada by Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Debut Atlantic and Prairie Debut.
Meagan has appeared as soloist with orchestras across Canada, including the Edmonton Symphony, the Regina Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Her talent has earned her numerous distinctions, including first prize at the Shean Piano Competition, the McGill Classical Concerto Competition and the Canadian Music Competition, as well as an award from the Sylva Gelber Foundation for Music. Meagan holds a Master’s degree from McGill University and is grateful to her teachers and lifelong mentors Cherith Alexander, Philip Chiu and Ilya Poletaev, as well as Tom Beghin, with whom she had the privilege of studying fortepiano
Recipient of the JM Canada Foundation’s Artist Assistance Fund (AIDA Fund), Quebec violinist Yu Kai Sun has performed in numerous festivals and concerts across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. She has recently been named associate concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in 2022 and concertmaster of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra in 2021.
With these two orchestras, she has had the opportunity to perform at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. A winner of the Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition, Yu Kai recently performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. In addition, she has been a soloist with the Oakville Chamber Orchestra, the North York Concert Orchestra, the York Symphony Orchestra, the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra.
Born in China, Yu Kai discovered the violin at the age of 8. From 2013 to 2017, completing a Diploma of Specialized Studies at the age of 18, she studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in the class of Helmut Lipsky. She then completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music under the teaching of Victor Danchenko. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Colburn School with Martin Beaver.
Yu Kai plays a 1917 Carl Becker violin on loan from The Colburn Collection and a Benoit Rolland bow on loan from violinist Anne Akiko Meyers through The Colburn School.
2022 : Élisabeth Pion, piano
2021 : Marie Nadeau-Tremblay, violin and Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy, cello
2019 : Marcel d’Entremont, tenor
2018 : Olivier Bergeron, baritone
2017 : Magali Simard-Galdès, soprano
2016 : Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano
2015 : Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, tenor
2014 : Daniel Clarke-Bouchard, piano
2013 : Stéphane Tétreault, cello
2012 : Marie-Eve Munger, soprano
2011 : Philippe Sly, baritone-bass
2010 : Tomislav Lavoie, bass
Beyond his passions for theater and poetry, Fernand Choquette also had a great interest in classical music. He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1955 as a producer-director, and his career remains one of the most accomplished to this day.
A frequent adjudicator at drama festivals, director, set designer and critic Peter Symcox (1925-2022) has written numerous articles for newspapers and periodicals such as The Montreal Star and Opera Canada. Shortly after his arrival in Montreal in 1953, he was hired as a set designer for CBC television and became a music producer.
