Graham Greene is pictured at the 2022 Canada’s Walk of Fame Gala in Toronto.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Music producer Bob Ezrin and actors Graham Greene and Patrick Huard are among the latest recipients of Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts.
The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation announced the laureates this morning for its lifetime artistic achievement award.
They include Sandra Laronde, the founding artistic director of the Indigenous performance company Red Sky Performance, and classical composer Denis Gougeon, whose array of works include music for solo instruments, chamber groups, orchestra, ballet and opera.
Ezrin earned the distinction for a lengthy career that included work with Pink Floyd, U2, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Taylor Swift, Alice Cooper and Nine Inch Nails.
Meanwhile, Greene was lauded for a stage and screen career spanning more than five decades and credits around the world, while Huard was recognized for work as a producer, screenwriter and host, as well as star turns in films including “Les Boys,” and “Bon Cop, Bad Cop.”
The awards celebration is set for June 14 at the National Arts Centre.
Other awards announced Thursday include the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts – going to Halifax-based performance artist and disability advocate April Hubbard – and the National Arts Centre Award for extraordinary work in the past performance year, going to musician and ethnomusicologist Jeremy Dutcher.
The foundation also announced details of its mentorship program, in which past award recipients guide emerging artists in mid-career.
This year, filmmaker Atom Egoyan will help Joshua Odjick of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation write, produce, and direct his first short film.