Montreal-based composer Jimmie LeBlanc is the winner of the 2009 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for his work L’Espace intérieur du monde. The work, scored for 15 musicians and electronics, received its premiere in March 2008 in Lyon, France, by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne under conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt. LeBlanc is a doctoral candidate in the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.

The annual Jules Léger Prize is organized as a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Music Centre and CBC/Radio-Canada, and is designed to encourage the creation of new Canadian chamber music and to foster its performance by Canadian chamber groups. The $7,500 prize was established in 1978 by the Right Honourable Jules Léger, then Governor General of Canada.

Every year, the winning work is broadcast nationally by CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique, Radio-Canada’s music network. L’Espace intérieur du monde will be broadcast at a later date. The members of the peer assessment committee for the 2009 Jules Léger Prize were violinist Parmela Attariwala (Toronto), composer Michael Oesterle (Deux-Montagnes, QC) and composer David Eagle (Calgary). The committee was a “blind jury” which evaluated the works without knowing the names of the composers.

The committee members described L’Espace intérieur du monde as “a raw and emotionally compelling work, effectively weaving electroacoustic elements and instrumental passages into musical gestures of extraordinary breadth.”

For more information, visit the Canada Council website.