Established in 2005, the William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award created by Dr. William Waters and the Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award created by Dr. John B. Lawson are given to graduating students of the Faculty of Music who are Ontario residents demonstrating financial need who are deemed to have the greatest potential to make an important contribution to the field of music. The awards were created to support and encourage graduating students to achieve their career goals.
The music of Riho Esko Maimets (b. 1988) has been described as “enchantingly beautiful” and having a “unique emotional and communicative impact”. Through his music, Riho, who has also worked as a church organist, seeks to provide spiritual nourishment to the listener. He is enjoying increasing exposure in North America and Europe with over 30 public performances of his music in 7 countries in the past year alone. Most recently, Riho has been nominated as an Emerging Artist for the Ontario Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts. In April 2012 he won the Villiers Quartet Competition in the UK in for “Sanctus”, his five-movement string quartet. He has also been awarded the highSCORE Prize 2011 in Pavia, Italy and the 2011 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian music in addition to have been selected as one of four Canadian composers under the age of 35 to take part in the Génération 2012 project, for which has composed a work for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal that will be toured in 8 cities across Canada in November 2012. Riho has also composed a significant amount choral music that has been performed by groups in Estonia, such as the Tartu Academic Women's Choir, Tallinn Chamber Choir and the vocal ensemble Heinavanker (“Haywain”). He was also recently commissioned to write a work for chamber choir and percussion quartet, to be performed by the Larkin Singers and the TorQ Percussion Quartet in Toronto in April 2013. Riho was born in Toronto, Canada and started composing while enrolled in the Claude Watson Arts program at Earl Haig Secondary School at the age of 15, under the instruction of Alan Torok. He completed undergraduate studies in composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia, as a pupil of Helena Tulve and René Eespere, while enhancing his connection to his Estonian heritage. He recently completed his Master's degree at the University of Toronto under Christos Hatzis. In September 2012, Riho will continue his studies as a professional diploma student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying with David Ludwig.
