Worth Many Thousands, The Virginia Parker Award for Outstanding Talent, Musicianship, and Artistic Excellence
Our previous article left you with a quiz to solve. Who was the recipient of the annual and prestigious Virginia Parker Prize in 2024, and what instrument does he or she play? The award is awarded annually to a classical musician, instrumentalist, or music conductor under the age of 32 who demonstrates outstanding talent, musicianship, and artistic excellence and who makes a valuable contribution to artistic life in Canada and internationally. It’s administered by the Canada Council, established and funded by the late Virginia Parker in 1982.
Cellists prevailed in 2025 and 2023. But the recipient (and the instrument) of the 2024 prize may surprise you. It’s a versatile and expressive instrument known for its worldwide influence in folk, jazz, klezmer, tango, and classical music, all the way from Latin America to Ireland. If you guessed the accordion, you’re right. The deserving winner in 2024, the dazzling performer Michael Bridge, needs an article entirely devoted to him.
Michael Bridge © Sam Gaetz
Calgary-born and Toronto-based, Bridge is a brilliant performer on both the acoustic accordion and the newly developed 21st-century digital accordion. (One can say it’s a computer-shaped accordion.) His performances feature the gamut of musical styles such as classical, contemporary, jazz, folk music, and so far, 53 newly commissioned works. He plays with amazing virtuosity, flair, charisma, and personality. Let’s hear him introduce himself.
Michael Bridge – Profile
The accordion has a distinguished history dating back to the 1800s. You may not know that it is a member of the wind instrument family. It’s a portable instrument with two reed organs connected by a hand-operated bellows, and with a right-hand keyboard or buttons and a bass casing with buttons. This accordion can sustain its sound for longer periods as compared to other instruments, and it is mainly handmade. Many are quite beautiful.
Both the piano accordion, which has a piano keyboard, and the button accordion are available in many sizes, including models for children and beginners with just a few keys, and advanced or professional models. Its many relatives are the concertina, bandoneon, and hurdy-gurdy.
Named one of CBC’s 30 under 30 classical musicians and winning several competitions in Canada and abroad, Bridge is in demand as a soloist and as a member of ensembles.
Bridge received his doctorate in accordion performance from the University of Toronto, and he is a Rebanks Fellow at the Glenn Gould School. His repertoire includes everything from Bach to Rachmaninoff, to Tchaikovsky and folk traditional music such as klezmer to contemporary music. His endeavours are extensive.
The two cellists Joanne Yesol Choi and Bryan Cheng featured in part I, and the accordionist, in addition to being winners of the Virginia Parker Prize, have repertoire in common too. Bridge has written lovely versions of well-known cello pieces such as the Elegie by Gabriel Fauré.
Fauré: Elegie (cello & accordion) Daniel Hamin Go & Michael Bridge
Bridge has made arrangements of other traditional works. Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 marked presto, is originally for piano, violin, viola, and cello. Here’s the Rondo alla Zingarese fourth movement arranged for violin, clarinet and accordion. Bridge’s playing is unbelievable.
Brahms: Rondo alla Zingarese (Bridge, Wolak & Tardif)
Other excellent performers on the traditional instrument have played arrangements of classical works, and renowned composers have written original works for the accordion, including Shostakovich, Alban Berg, Roy Harris and contemporary composers. Here’s a noteworthy concerto by Polish composer Marcin Blażewicz (1953 – 2021.) The composer has also written a double concerto for Violin and Accordion and many works in other genres.
Marcin Błażewicz: Accordion Concerto – I. Andante ma agitato (Klaudiusz Baran, accordion; Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Michał Klauza, cond.)
Michael Bridge has been able to expand and enrich the traditional instrument with brilliant colours and sonorities available to the newly developed digital accordion with astonishing results. Listen to this gorgeous rendition of the captivating work Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla.
Oblivion (Piazzolla) on Digital Accordion – Michael Bridge
One of Bridge’s most successful collaborations is the Bridge & Wolak duo comprising traditional clarinet and digital accordion. They have performed together for over a decade, weaving in unusual comedy. These two, Michael Bridge and Kornel Wolak, a native of Poland, are hilarious, and they venture into new territory with re-imagined classical, world, and jazz fusion music.
Trailer: BRIDGE & WOLAK
Double-Double Duo: LIVE!
Their Bach to Benny Goodman Tour toured all over Canada and to 20 US states. But look at how they’ve developed. Their unique production, TANGORIUM, a tango-fusion show—a combination of Latin American rhythms from the Milongas of Buenos Aires and the Tango, features a symphony orchestra, or Water Street Dance Milwaukee— (or both!) Here’s a short sample of the mesmerising musical interpretations, enhanced by contemporary dance, film clips, and imaginative lighting.
Official Trailer: TANGORIUM (Bridge & Wolak x Water Street Dance)
Equally dedicated to education, Bridge & Wolak founded the Bridge & Wolak Music Mentorship Program in 2020—an online program for high schoolers who want to explore careers in the arts.
Bridge’s other collaborations include the Ladom Ensemble, comprising Cello, Accordion, Piano, Hand Percussion. The Ladom Ensemble perform what they call “acoustic fusion music”: a mix of music from classical, klezmer, rock, tango, jazz, and Persian traditions. All four classically trained musicians do not shy away from improvisation, and they have collaborated with composers, choreographers, animators, and visual artists.
Michael Bridge
Dedicated to instruction beyond the practice room, Bridge offers innovative workshops for “self-employed musicians working hard to get to the next level of income generated through performing.” The workshops include how to organise tours, the importance of networking, and he provides names of organisations that can help, as well as strategising and negotiating fees, all essential skills.
If you are already convinced that Bridge is an astonishingly versatile musician, be prepared to be dazzled. Bridge easily represents an entire orchestra on the digital accordion! Here is his magnificent version of Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture.
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