Second McGill string player to be awarded ’Stanley Cup of classical music’

Seymour Schulich’s Golden Violin to share Toronto stage with Lord Stanley’s storied Cup

Toronto businessman and McGill University patron Seymour Schulich will present a McGill string player with the second-ever Golden Violin scholarship in a ceremony that will solidify the status of the unique award as ‘the Stanley Cup of classical music.’

The Golden Violin, an objet d’art made of pewter and gold plate that Schulich discovered in 2006 while travelling in Dubai, will share the stage with the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League’s most coveted award, during the ceremony, to be held Monday, Jan. 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Golden Violin Award is now given annually to a top string player who is close to completing studies at McGill’s Schulich School of Music and poised for a successful performing career. While the Golden Violin itself remains on display in McGill’s Marvin Duchow Music Library, the award includes an annual scholarship of $20,000, the largest privately funded music scholarship in Canada.

“From the outset, Seymour told us his idea was to make this award the equivalent of the Stanley Cup, and we are delighted therefore to have this distinguished award to once again honour an outstanding McGill music student in this unique way,” said McGill Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum.

Prof. Munroe-Blum will be on hand as Schulich and Prof. Don McLean, Dean of the Schulich School of Music, co-host the award ceremony, which will feature a performance by the Schulich Chamber Players of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with four student soloists led by the 2006 Golden Violin recipient, Emmanuel Vukovich, a violinist with McGill’s award-winning Lloyd Carr-Harris Quartet.

“This will be a great opportunity to showcase the international-calibre talent that McGill’s Schulich School of Music attracts, and to highlight the significance of Seymour’s Golden Violin and his ongoing support of that talent,” said Dean McLean.

McGill’s Faculty of Music was renamed the Schulich School of Music in 2005 in recognition of a $20-million gift from Schulich – the largest individual donation to a university-based arts program in Canadian history.

Schulich is co-founder of Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation and Chairman of Newmont Capital Limited. He is also the author of the recent best-seller: Get Smarter, Life and Business Lessons. He earned an MBA from McGill in 1965.