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Artists in the classical music and jazz categories received their trophies last night at the 2025 Juno Awards.
The bulk of the awards celebrating Canadian music were handed out at the Juno Awards Gala ahead of the mainstage event at Rogers Arena hosted by Michael Bublé.
Amongst the statuettes handed out last night were the four awards for classical music and the three awarded in the jazz categories. Manitobans received nominations in several of these categories, but none took home the top prize. That includes Brandon’s James Ehnes, who was looking for the twelfth Juno Award of his career for his recording Williams Violin Concerto no. 1; Bernstein Serenade with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève. The recording was nominated for Classical Album of the Year: Solo Artist, but lost out to Toronto mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo and her record Freezing. The win is the second of D’Angelo’s career, who received recognition for her debut album enargeia back in 2022. Freezing also features works by Canadian composers Cecilia Livingston and “Adrian Ira” Kramer.
Listen to all of the classical nominees for the 2025 Juno Awards here!
Another Manitoban shut out from the podium was Cree composer Andrew Balfour. The artistic director of Dead of Winter was previously nominated for his project Nagamo, created with Vancouver choir Musica Intima in 2023. This year, Balfour was nominated alongside Calgary’s Luminous Voices in the Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble category for their project Ispiciwin (the Cree word for “journey”). That journey came to a disappointing end as the award was given to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Gustavo Gimeno and featuring soloists Marc-Andre Hamelin and Nathalie Forget, they awarded for their latest album Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie, with the French composer’s 1948 masterwork being the centrepiece of the album.
Listen to Andrew Balfour's Juno nomination interview here:
Composers Larry Strachan and Kevin Lau also had their Juno dreams dashed on Saturday night. Winnipeg’s Strachan had his works featured on Known To Dreamers: Black Voices in Canadian Art Song, an album by the Canadian Art Song Project, while Lau, the former composer-in-residence with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, had his work Under a Veil of Stars featured on a recording by the St. John-Mercer Park Trio. Both were nominated in the Classical Album of the Year: Small Ensemble category, but the award ultimately went to Rituæls, the latest album from Montreal’s collectif9.
Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds was the 2025 winner of the Classical Composition of the Year Juno Award. Her project "Angmalukisaa" (the Inuktitut word for “round”) was part on the album Alikeness with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Sinfonia led by violinist Mark Fewer and featuring percussionist Aiyun Huang, which itself was nominated for an award. The piece was a central part of the album’s message of finding deeper connection with those around us.
In the jazz categories, guitarist Jocelyn Gould was unable to secure Jazz Album of the Year: Solo honours for her latest record Portrait of Right Now. Montreal saxophonist André Leroux took home those honours for his records Montreal Jazz Series 1 (Échanges Synaptiques). Calgary vocalist Caity Gyorgy snagged the third Juno Award of her career in the Vocal Jazz Album of the Year category for Hello! How Are You?, and the Jeremy Ledbetter Trio rounded out the jazz winners in the Jazz Album of the Year: Ensemble category for their album Gravity.
Manitobans were not completely shut out on the Juno stage on Saturday night. Winnipeg blues mainstay Big Dave McLean took home Blues Album of the Year honours for his latest album This Old Life, while Tataskwayak Cree Nation’s Sebastian Gaskin won in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year category.