Winnipeg-born cellist wins prestigious $25K prize for young classical musicians

Cellist David Liam Roberts won this year’s Canada Council for the Arts Michael Measures First Prize at a virtual ceremony Wednesday. (Source: Simeon Rusnak Photography)

Winnipeg — A 21-year-old Winnipegger is the proud recipient of this year’s Canada Council for the Arts Michael Measures First Prize, a prestigious award for young Canadian classical music performers.

Cellist David Liam Roberts was named the first prize winner of $25,000 at a virtual ceremony Wednesday. To be eligible, entrants must be music performers between 16 and 24 years old who are enrolled in a summer training program with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

“I’ve been gunning for this award for a few years,” Roberts told CTV News.

His resume tells a similar tale; Roberts was the 2020 recipient of the Michael Measures Second Prize, the 2019 winner of the Gail Asper Foundation Award of Excellence and the 2018 recipient of the WMC McLellan Competition second prize.

“Obviously, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada has a reputation of being a great training program for orchestral musicians,” he said. “It really is an honour.”

Roberts, who is Métis, was able to continue performing in a mix of taped and in-person performances this summer, including in Italy, Slovenia and to hometown audiences with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra alongside his former teacher, principal cellist Yuri Hooker.

“One of my goals in the next few years is really just building my profile internationally. My summer was my first set in that direction,” he said.

Next up -- Roberts is about to enter his final year at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. The prize money will come in handy as he opens the next chapter of his professional career.

“I’m going to use it definitely for my career development and my studies in the next few years,” he said. “I’m planning to do graduate studies either in the States or Europe, so obviously just travelling, auditioning, studying - all these things that are stepping stones that all cost a lot of money, and it’s prohibitive. So for me, this award makes a lot of my dreams and goals a lot more possible.”