The William Littler Prize for Music Criticism is open for nominations for the present 12 months. The brand new award, given out every year by the Music Critics Affiliation of North America (MCANA), acknowledges excellence in writing by youthful critics, particularly within the fields of live performance music and opera.
The prize’s namesake is William Littler, whose profession with the Toronto Star spanned practically six a long time from 1966 till 2022.
“All through his greater than 5 a long time with the Toronto Star, William Littler left a permanent mark on the classical music panorama. His sincere and considerate criticism set a excessive normal that many critics, myself included, proceed to attempt for. Due to Invoice’s assist, the William Littler Prize for Music Criticism fill assist foster a brand new era of writers. It’s an unimaginable present coming at a time with the humanities journalism sector wants it most,” feedback Joshua Chong, present tradition reporter for the Toronto Star, in an announcement.
We requested Littler about his profession, and what the prize means right now.
William Littler: The Interview
Littler, a local of British Columbia, started piano classes on the age of 11, and continued his research privately. Whereas at UBC, underneath a common arts program, he studied music and criticism , and wrote his first evaluations for the UBC paper Ubyssey. In 1962, he started his skilled profession with the Vancouver Solar. After taking a place on the Toronto Star in 1966, he turned the primary music critic to obtain the Nationwide Newspaper Award for important writing in 1980.
William Littler displays on a profession as a classical music critic. What does it imply, in a world the place, for all intents and functions, such a profession now not exists?
“It’s an attention-grabbing thought, that I’ve given some thought to,” he begins. “My profession as a music critic in Canada is form of distinctive.” His profession at The Toronto Star zeroed in on classical music criticism for the ultimate 39 years. “Which is form of unprecedented,” he factors out.
“It was conventional for severe newspapers to have a employees music critic,” he says. That he was in a position to write for a single publication for thus lengthy is one thing new writers might solely dream about. “The one different paper I’d labored for is the Vancouver Solar. After I joined the Vancouver Solar, there was no pop music critic. There was a jazz critic, there was a classical music critic.”
It was a wholly completely different media panorama when it got here to overlaying tradition and the humanities, in different phrases. Right this moment, the employees critic place is gone, and anecdotally, Littler says that his American colleagues inform him there are maybe a half dozen or so scattered on the main newspapers throughout america.
That’s why he was initially skeptical when MCANA President, and LvT freelance contributor, Arthur Kaptainis approached him with the thought of a prize for music criticism.
“Why are we funding a prize for a occupation that’s disappearing?” he questioned. “The occupation has just about disappeared now.”
Arthur’s reply, nonetheless, was that its demise as a occupation was precisely why the observe of music criticism wanted to be celebrated. Even when the thought of a profession and full-time job had disappeared, the idea and observe has continued.
Littler notes some basic variations in how that observe continues, nonetheless. Freelancers, as he factors out, don’t have the clout or the price range for journey, and sometimes get lowered entry to greater profile acts. By advantage of working for the most important newspaper within the nation, he was in a position to persuade his editors to fund his journey to different locations to write down, together with luxuries like assist from freelance writers when he was too busy. You’d fund sports activities reporters to journey to video games, why not me? He says it’s an argument that labored again within the day.
“We have been in a position to do a stage of protection that has disappeared now.” Opinions of not solely music however different performing arts like theatre and dance are exhausting to come back by. “I don’t suppose that’s going to vary within the close to future,” he says, citing cutbacks and diminished sources.
What’s a Music Critic?
“There’s no common guidelines as to the way you grow to be a critic,” William factors out. He recollects answering a query on the subject from an viewers member at a music competition in Parry Sound years in the past. “It’s not one thing you plan to do – it’s form of like shingles,” he replied. He experiences that the road received fun from the viewers.
“There are individuals who nonetheless wish to write criticism,” he says, “but it surely’s not a viable profession possibility anymore.” It’s an effort that’s being upheld by freelance writers and amateurs within the true sense of the phrase.
The worth of music evaluations is commonly disputed. Littler relates conversations he’s had with editors who see them as a subject whose worth is over in a short time. “Newspapers see little worth in printing one thing they see as already being a form of useless story,” he says.
He additionally factors out that classical music was held in greater regard by earlier generations, a standing that secured its protection on a preferential scale.
“I contemplate myself very fortunate in my timing.”
What’s a overview, anyway? Littler remembers the phrases of a former editor who advised him, your job is to take us to that occasion. It’s about recreating the expertise in your readers. And, no matter that have was, it’s not written in stone.
“It’s an opinion, not a judicial verdict.”
Littler taught in addition to wrote his model of music criticism in numerous positions on the Royal Conservatory, College of Toronto, and different establishments. He tried to instill a form of important pondering course of into what have been extra typically music efficiency majors.
“I’m not going to attempt to flip you into critics, however I feel it’s necessary to you as musicians that you concentrate on critically about music,” he’d clarify.
These programs in music criticism, as he factors out, have additionally disappeared.
The Prize will rejoice those that have persevered.
The William Littler Prize for Music Criticism
Listed below are among the particulars to appoint a author for the prize.
- Eligibility: All writers aged 40 or underneath on Dec. 31 of the relevant calendar 12 months, and have to be based mostly in North America
- Three entries are permitted per particular person are permitted, every 2,000 phrases or much less, and every should have been printed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023 by a longtime and publicly accessible web site with or with no print platform.
- Littler shall be on the Awards Committee who will consider the submissions. What are they in search of? Typically, they describe a considerate method, “lucid” writing model, and background preparation.
The Prize contains:
- $1,000 USD
- Republication of the successful entry (the place permitted) in Classical Voice North America
- One 12 months of membership within the Music Critics Affiliation of North America.
No deadline is indicated, however presumably your entry must are available early in January 2025, with the winner introduced later that 12 months.
Discover extra particulars and the entry kind [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
