MONTREAL -- Halifax native Marc Djokic has won the $125,000 Prix Goyer classical music award for a collaborative emerging talent.

Billed as the biggest prize in Canada for classical music, the award was created in honour of the late Jean-Pierre Goyer, a former federal cabinet minister and chairman of the Conseil des arts de Montreal and the Orchestre Metropolitain.

Winners are chosen in recognition of their diverse early career of musical collaborations with Canadian and international established artists.

Djokic, a violinist, first studied with his father Philippe Djokic, who award organizers called "one of Canada's great soloists," and then with the Cleveland Institute of Music's Young Artist program, the New England Conservatory, and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

He has performed with several orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Quebec Symphony Orchestra, PEI Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.