Representing an exciting new future for art music in Australia, the 2021 winners of the annual Art Music Awards have been unveiled.
Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the Art Music Awards is an annual celebration and acknowledgement of the achievements of all facets of the art music realms, including composers, performers and educators within the areas of contemporary classical, jazz, improvisation, sound art and experimental music.
With each year offering up a dazzling lineup of ingenuity and innovation, the 2021 edition of the awards notably captured a year where creatives worked with and against parameters presented by COVID-19. And while the awards event was unable to go ahead as originally planned due to varying pandemic restrictions, the spirit of the art music community remained as bold and committed as ever in the lead up to the winners being announced today.
“APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre are proud to celebrate the ingenuity and dedication of this year’s finalists at a time of change and disruption – and in some ways also a time of opportunity – in the performing arts landscape," said Dean Ormston, APRA AMCOS chief executive and Marshall McGuire, chair of the AMC's board of directors.
“While we are disappointed to have not had the chance to celebrate with you all in person, we remain committed to advocating on behalf of music creators, organisations and arts workers. Our planned virtual program was to have been a unique showcase of Australian art music, and we look forward to acknowledging your incredible work in person in 2022.”
With a range of artists, educators and composers nominated for this years' awards, there was no shortage of talent across the thirteen national and various state categories.
The 2021 Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music was presented to Listening In The Wild by Leah Barclay, Lyndon Davis and Tricia King, with the project featuring a strong collaborative connection with the First Nations community. Meanwhile, Tariro Mavondo, Reuben Lewis and Peter Knight took out the Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art award for their project Closed Beginnings, which swiftly converted from a live project to a virtual one in the infancy of the lengthy Victorian lockdown last year.
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Educators faced significant and unfamiliar challenges during 2020, but the Magic Modules program by Moorambilla Voices scooped up the Award for Excellence in Music Education for its work reaching out to children in regional and remote NSW to make curriculum-based materials easily accessible online. And while the Work of the Year: Jazz award attracted a large field of extremely competitive nominations, it was Vanessa Perica's work Spaccanapoli that took out the win, brilliantly reflecting the buzz and beautiful mayhem of the Naples main street namesake.
Additionally, the founding producers of ABC Radio National’s iconic program The Music Show, Penny Lomax and Maureen Cooney received the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music for 2021, and will be celebrated at the Art Music Awards ceremony in 2022. Read on for all the winners from this year's Art Music Awards!
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2021 Art Music Awards – Winners
Work of the Year- Choral
- Title: Sacred Stepping Stones
- Composer: Lisa Young
- Text: Lisa Young
- Performer: Massed choir, Gondwana National Choral School 2020 and Lisa Young, conductor
Work of the Year- Dramatic
- Title: Dragon Ladies Don't Weep; a Chamber Made & CultureLink Singapore co-production
- Composer: Erik Griswold
Performer:Margaret Leng Tan, performer, Tamara Saulwick, director, Nick Roux, video artist, and Kok Heng Leun, dramaturg.
Work of the Year - Jazz
- Title: Spaccanapoli
- Composer: Vanessa Perica
Performer: Vanessa Perica Orchestra
Work of the Year – Large Ensemble
- Title: Piece 43 For Now
- Composer: Cathy Milliken
- Performer: SWR Symphonieorchester and Titus Engel, conductor
Work of the Year- Chamber Music
- Title: A Room of Her Own
- Composer: Anne Cawrse
- Performer: Australian String Quartet
Work of the Year- Electroacoustic/Sound Art
- Title: Closed Beginnings
- Composer: Tariro Mavondo, Reuben Lewis and Peter Knight
- Performer: Tariro Mavondo, poetry, Reuben Lewis and Peter Knight, music, Jem Savage, sound production and Leo Dale, video production
Performance of the Year – Jazz/Improvised Music
- Performer: Phonetic Orchestra
- Title: Silent Towns
- Composer: Phonetic Orchestra
Performance of the Year – Notated Composition
- Performer: Sydney Chamber Opera, Jessica O'Donoghue, Jack Symonds, conductor, and Clemence Williams, director
- Title: Commute
- Composer: Peggy Polias
- Text: Peggy Polias
Award for Excellence in Music Education
- Moorambilla Voices for Moorambilla Magic Modules
Award for Excellence in Experimental Music
- Leah Barclay, Lyndon Davis & Tricia King for Listening in the Wild
LUMINARY AWARDS
National Individual
- Deborah Kayser for 30-year contribution to Australian music as a trail-blazing soprano
National Organisation
- Speak Percussion for visionary leadership and sustained contribution to Australian art music
State/Territory
- NSW: Ensemble Offspring for consistently high-quality performances, breadth of repertoire, and commitment to collaboration for 25 years
- VIC: Melbourne Digital Concert Hall for supporting the classical music industry during the COVID-19 crisis
- QLD: Alex Raineri for commitment to the creation and performance of Australian contemporary music in the Brisbane Music Festival
- SA: Anne Cawrse for sustained contribution to the new music culture of Adelaide through composition and education.
- TAS: Stephanie Eslake as founding editor of CutCommon, providing a voice to emerging composers and performers.
