Joshua Peters

A national music competition concluded this past weekend in Brandon.
The Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition for the performance of Canadian and contemporary music has selected the 2015 prize winners:

1st Prize – Joshua Peters, violin with
pianist Katherine Dowling

2nd Prize – Cameron Crozman, cello with
pianist Janelle Scharringa


From Friday, May 1st through Sunday, May 3rd, eight of Canada’s best emerging string players and their collaborative pianists gathered at Brandon University’s School of Music, for the 2015 - (E-Gré) Strings. The E-Gré Competition began in 1976 and is the most important annual Canadian and contemporary music competition.

Semifinals were held on Friday, May 1st and Saturday, May 2nd, after which three finalists were chosen to perform in the final round of public recitals on Sunday, May 3rd. Each semifinal and final recital were required to include at least 50% Canadian music as well as this year’s commissioned work Into the Ether by Jordan Pal.

First place winner, Joshua Peters, received a cash prize of $10,000, a three-week residency and debut recital in Italy at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, and a 10-15 city Cross-Canada Winner’s Tour in November.

Second prize winner, Cameron Crozman, received a cash prize of $5,000 and third prize winner, Sarah Gans received a cash prize of $3,000. The City of Brandon Prize of $1,000 for the best performance of the 2015 commissioned piece, Into the Ether, by Jordan Pal was awarded to cellist Cameron Crozman.

Joshua Peters says, he’s “humbled to be chosen as the winner of the 2015 Eckhardt -Gramatté competition and that he is truly looking forward to promoting more great work by Canadian and modern composers.”

Artistic Director Megumi Masaki, was “impressed with how each competitor devoted themselves to performance excellence, and achieved the highest level of artistic engagement.”