Dr. Sharon Azrieli: Mécénat Musica Donor-In-Residence

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The Mécénat Musica Donors-in-Residence program helps recruit philanthropists who are interested in keeping culture healthy for generations to come. Sharon Azrieli’s collaborative efforts have resulted more than 50 plus Mécénat Musica donors contributing to 23 cultural organizations from 2016 to 2025, particularly voice funds.

“I remember biking through the woods and it hit me that I was going to be a singer.”

Soprano Sharon Azrieli’s passion has always been music, particularly singing, something that has guided her since her student days in New York. Back then, to fund voice lessons, Azrieli drew on her entrepreneurial side and sold her handmade jewelry while dodging police on the streets of New York. These days, the same determination propels her toward the next stage of her career.

The daughter of the late Montreal architect-real estate developer David Azrieli, Sharon grew up taking piano lessons and enjoying the family’s Ella Fitzgerald record collection. “I was given a solo in Grade 4, and my worst fear came true,” she recalls. “I think I froze and forgot the words. But I came back in the second verse.”

The turning point for Azrieli came when she studied art history at Vassar College and began taking voice lessons. “I remember biking through the woods and it hit me that I was going to be a singer,” she says. As an exchange student in Paris during her junior year, Azrieli discovered the world of opera and immediately felt at home. Unfortunately, despite a growing passion for music, her parents didn’t quite approve of her ambition to become an opera singer.

Driven by sheer will, Azrieli made her way to New York and studied illustration and design at the Parson School of Design. She pursued music by studying with various voice teachers, including renowned Canadian soprano Clarice Carson. “My dad promised to pay for my voice lessons if I got into Juilliard,” recalls Azrieli, who auditioned three times for the prestigious arts school before being admitted. “You have to understand the politics, so I took lessons with each teacher until I found one that worked for me.”

Looking back, Azrieli’s Juilliard days were a mixed experience: “It helped me learn how to survive,” she says. Following graduation, success came quickly. Richard Bradshaw chose her for the roles of Juliette and Mimì during the COC’s 1993 season and at Banff, she created the lead role in Nosferatu.

In 1995, Azrieli’s career took a back seat when she started a family but, after a few years, found herself divorced with two young sons to raise. After studying cantorial singing in New York, she returned to Montreal in 2000 and for two years was Montreal’s only female cantor at Temple Emmanuel El-Beth.

Azrieli earned a master’s degree from the University of Montreal in 2006 and, in 2011, obtained her doctorate there with a thesis showing how Verdi used fragments of Jewish prayer modes in many of his operatic melodies.

Philanthropy

During this time, Azrieli complemented her active performing career alongside philanthropy in music and the arts. Her quiet, behind-the-scenes work became big news with the launch in 2015 of the Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP), a composition award funded by her family’s Azrieli Foundation, whose mission is to support Canadian and Jewish causes. It was an idea five years in the making. Not only are its prize amounts remarkable, but its aims are incredibly important.

Launched on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the project aims to promote the creation of Jewish music and stimulate a debate on what Jewish music is. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, AMP has grown from two to four major prizes of $50,000 each. The two newest ones are for Canadian Music and International Music.

Since joining the board of the Azrieli Foundation about 15 years ago, Azrieli has progressively steered some of the annual giving to music and the arts, including to Jeunesse Musicales Canada, Domaine Forget, El Sistema across Canada and the McGill-UdM Piano-Vocal Arts Residency. Now the largest non-corporate public foundation in Canada, the Azrieli Foundation has become one of Canada’s largest private supporters of music and the arts. In 2023, the Azrieli Foundation announced the creation of the Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre (AMACC), an expansion of its current activities.

AMACC will release a new five-year plan in 2026, which supports Azrieli’s dream to improve accessibility to performing arts venues across Canada. This sits within a broader goal to foster a more accessible arts sector, where more Canadians can engage with excellent arts experiences that advance their quality of life and learning.

Mécénat Musica

Since the death of her father in 2014, Azrieli has also used her inheritance for philanthropy beyond the Azrieli Foundation. Her role as Donor-in-Residence at Mécénat Musica has helped music organizations develop their endowment funds, especially to support singers. With her lead, many organizations have created funds to pay singers when they present choral programs or operas. Orchestre Classique de Montréal, where Azrieli was board chairperson for several years, is a prime example.

“I had long arguments with [the late]Boris Brott about creating the fund, and I was finally able to convince him,” says Azrieli. “The fund only started six years ago and will exceed $4 million soon. The first year, you may get $5,000 in payouts, but the second year, it may be $10,000, and then $15,000 in the third year, and so on, until now they get $200,000 per year [five per cent of $4,000,000], every year, forever!”

Active Career

Now a gleeful grandmother thrice over, besides picking up the grandkids in the afternoons, Azrieli leads an active performance career that includes acting in three movies, a turn to jazz with several CDs, and her first recital at Upstairs with John Roney (March 22, 2026) and the debut of her one-woman show based on her life (Feb. 17, 2026, 9e Musique@17h). “Singing gives me the ability to express much more than you ever can with words,” she says. “You get better as you get older because you have more experience, and you are not afraid of showing it.”