A composer who wrote an orchestral piece based on the life and cyberbullying death of Port Coquitlam teen Amanda Todd won a Juno last weekend.
It’s the first Juno accolade for Jocelyn Morlock, a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence who penned the 10-minute work, My Name Is Amanda Todd, in 2015 for the National Arts Centre as part of its multimedia series, titled Life Reflected.
In her acceptance last Saturday at the Juno Awards gala dinner in Vancouver, Morlock escorted Todd’s mother, Carol, to the stage to pay tribute to the teenager and saying of Carol (who has continued the work for mental health through her charity, the Amanda Todd Legacy Society), “She’s my hero.”
Carol Todd fought back tears, calling the award “bittersweet” as Amanda had sought to have her name in lights as a performing artist. The week before she took her life, Carol Todd told the crowd, she had enrolled her daughter in singing lessons.
In 2011, Morlock was nominated for a Juno for Exaudi, in the same category: Classical Composition of the Year.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
