Applications are closed for 2024

Ontario Arts Foundation and the Screen Composers Guild of Canada Announce:

The Christopher Dedrick Award for Live Musicians in Media Soundtracks

We are proud to re-launch the Chris Dedrick Music Fund in 2023. It is an exciting award that provides the opportunity for an SCGC member to apply for a cash prize of $1,200 to enhance their score through the use of live musicians.

For Program Guidelines and Application materials click here

About the fund:

Created in memory of past SCGC President, Christopher Dedrick, this award aims to encourage and support the hiring and use of live musicians in the production of media music soundtracks, and by this to show their aesthetic value in media scores not only to composers, but also to producers. The prize is awarded to an Associate, Professional or Gold Member in good standing of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.  The Screen Composers Guild of Canada administers the selection process for the prize in partnership with the Ontario Arts Foundation.

“The joy of working with musicians was always close to Chris’ heart,” says Moira Dedrick, wife of Christopher Dedrick and founder of the Christopher Dedrick Music Fund. “Chris felt that the natural sound of real instruments added immensely to the sound and emotion of his film and television scores. So a Fund to encourage other composers to use live musicians in their screen scores seemed to be a natural choice.”

“Chris was passionate about the emotion that live musicians brought to his scores”, says Marvin Dolgay, former President of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, “and the SCGC is honoured to administer this Fund in partnership with the Ontario Arts Foundation. It is a great tribute to the legacy of one of our best”.

Make a Donation to the Chris Dedrick Music Fund.

For Program Guidelines and Application materials please contact Alison Dowler at alison@screencomposers.ca

More information:

The Ontario Arts Foundation (OAF) works with arts patrons to build long-term support for the arts in Ontario.  Established in 1991 as a public foundation, the OAF administers over 300 funds established by individual donors, private foundations, corporations and arts organizations and pays out over $2.8 million annually in support of the arts.

The Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) is a trade association certified under the Canadian Federal Status of the Artist Act, and represents all professional Anglophone composers and music producers for film, television , video games, mobile and all other screen media.  The SCGC promotes the status and rights of screen composers through professional development, sharing information, advocacy on issues such as creator’s rights and the value of screen music.

For more information, please contact:

• Tonya Dedrick, Screen Composers Guild of Canada
  416-410-5076 | tkdedrick@screencomposers.ca
• Alan Walker, executive director of the Ontario Arts Foundation
  416-969-7413 | awalker@arts.on.ca

About Christopher Dedrick:

Chris Dedrick was a music producer, arranger, and a classical and soundtrack composer. He worked with directors Guy Maddin and Don McKellar, winning a Genie Award for Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World. In 1997 Dedrick won a Gemini Award for his work on the television series Road to Avonlea. Chris was nominated a total of 16 times for Gemini awards, winning a total of four, the others for Million Dollar Babies, Shipwreckon the Skeleton Coast and The Great Canadian Polar Bear Adventure.