The winner of the National Arts Centre Award is chosen by the NAC board of trustees from a list of candidates proposed by senior NAC artistic programmers. Bradshaw will be awarded a cash prize of C$15,000 and a sculpture by Wei Yew and Leslie Rowe-Israelson, according to the paper.

The Citizen quotes Toronto Star columnist Martin Knelman as writing, after the opening of the Four Seasons Centre, "It would be hard to think of anyone in Toronto cultural history who ever had a more glorious year than Richard Bradshaw's 2006."

Bradshaw, who joined the company in 1989 as chief conductor, conducted Wagner's Ring cycle in Toronto in September, the first time the mammoth work was presented complete in Canada.