19 July 2017
2017 Art Music Awards: finalists announced
Finalists for the 2017 Art Music Awards have been announced, with a diverse mix of former winners and first-time finalists making up this year's shortlists.
The shortlist for Instrumental Work of the Year is particularly intriguing, reflecting the diversity of creative impulses and influences in today's Australian composition: two of the works - those by Austin Buckett (Aisles for the AAO and Ensemble Offspring) and Peter Knight (Diomira for the AAO) - transverse the territory from improvised music to jazz and contemporary classical composition. The other two works are a solo piece for carillon by Jessica Wells and a large-scale ensemble work (How forests think for ELISION) by Liza Lim, featuring a solo for the Chinese sheng.
Finalists in the Orchestral Work of the Year category display an equally rich set of influences and inspirations, from Lyle Chan's Serenade for tenor, saxophone and orchestra ('My Dear Benjamin [Britten]) and Ross Edwards's Frog and Star Cycle for alto saxophone, percussion and orchestra, to Andrew Ford's melting pot of electric guitar influences and techniques, Raga, and Elena Kats-Chernin's surely unique work for eight double basses and orchestra, The Witching Hour.
The Vocal/Choral Work of the Year shortlist is unusually long: it consists of two chamber operas (Liza Lim's Tree of Codes and Kate Neal's Permission to Speak), Paul Stanhope's Agnus Dei, and no fewer than 10 composers setting poetry by Judith Wright to music, as part of Katie Noonan and the Brodsky Quartet's project 'With Love and Fury'.
The Jazz Work of the Year finalists in 2017 are Eugene Ball for Intrusions (another work for the fabulous Monash Art Ensemble); Paul Grabowsky for The Moons of Jupiter (for his own sextet), Tom O'Halloran (for Now Noise - an ambitious album of new work) and Andrea Keller (for the meditative song cycle Still Night, featuring texts from tenth-century Japanese poetry to e.e. cummings).
Performance of the Year finalists in 2017 are Adelaide Chamber Singers (for a performance of Paul Stanhope's Agnus Dei), Benjamin Beilman and Andrew Tyson (Jane Stanley's Cerulean orbits), Michael Kieran Harvey (Yitzhak Yedid's Piano Concerto), and Peter de Jager (Chris Dench's Piano Sonata).
The Award for Excellence by an Organisation will go to one of the following: Speak Percussion, Synergy & Taikoz Limited, Tura New Music and Zephyr Quartet. Finalists for the Award for Excellence by an Individual are Cat Hope, Daryl Buckley, David Bridie and Tos Mahoney.
Shortlisted for the Award for Excellence in Music Education are Goulburn Regional Conservatorium, Canberra Symphony Orchestra and University of Canberra (for 'The Goulburn Concerto'); Moorambilla Voices; Sydney Symphony; and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. The Award for Excellence in a Regional Area finalists are Four Winds Festival, Ngarukuruwala for Ngiya awungarra (ethnographic recordings of Tiwi song material), Primal Dance Company and Tura New Music.
Finalists for the Award for Excellence in Experimental Music are Clocked Out with Bruce and Jocelyn Wolfe (for The Piano Mill project), JOLT Arts, Matthias Schack-Arnott, and Robert Curgenven. The Award for Excellence in Jazz shortlist consists of Andrea Keller, Daniel Susnjar, Ross McHenry, and Stu Hunter.
Australian State and Territory Awards will be revealed during the Awards ceremony, while the Distinguished Services to Australian Music Award will again be announced prior to the event.
The 2017 Art Music Awards will be presented at a gala event in Sydney on Tuesday 22 August at the City Recital Hall. Staged jointly by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre (AMC), the ceremony will be hosted by ABC presenter Simon Marnie. Gabriella Smart will return to curate the live performance element for the event.
2017 Art Music Awards: finalists
Vocal / Choral Work of the Year
Title: Agnus Dei (Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep)
Composer: Paul Stanhope
Text: Mary Elizabeth Frye; Requiem Mass
Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers, Carl Crossin conductor
Title: Permission to Speak
Composer: Kate Neal
Text: Tamara Saulwick
Performer: Chamber Made Opera (Gian Slater, Georgie Darvidis,
Josh Kyle and Edward Fairlie)
Title: Tree of Codes
Composer: Liza Lim
Performer: Ensemble MusikFabrik; Cologne Opera, Clement Power
conductor
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing MGB Australia
Title: With Love and Fury
Composers: Katie Noonan, Paul Dean, Andrew Ford, Paul Grabowsky,
Iain Grandage, David Hirschfelder, Elena Kats-Chernin, John
Rodgers, Richard Tognetti and Carl Vine
Performer: Katie Noonan & the Brodsky Quartet
Jazz Work of the Year
Title: Intrusions
Composer: Eugene Ball
Performer: Monash Art Ensemble
Title: Moons of Jupiter
Composer: Paul Grabowsky
Performer: The Paul Grabowsky Sextet
Publisher: BMG AM
Title: Now Noise
Composer: Tom O'Halloran
Performer: Memory of Elements
Title: Still Night
Composer: Andrea Keller
Performer: Vince Jones, Andrea Keller, Stephen Magnusson, Gian
Slater and Julien Wilson
Instrumental Work of the Year
Title: Aisles
Composer: Austin Buckett
Performer: Australian Art Orchestra and Ensemble Offspring
Title: Diomira
Composer: Peter Knight
Performer: Australian Art Orchestra
Title: How Forests Think
Composer: Liza Lim
Performer: ELISION
Published by: Universal Music Publishing MGB Australia
Title: Moon Fire
Composer: Jessica Wells
Performer: Lyn Fuller
Orchestral Work of the Year
Title: Frog and Star Cycle: double concerto for alto
saxophone, percussion
and orchestra
Composer: Ross Edwards
Performer: Amy Dickson (saxophone), Colin Currie (percussion),
Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Lothar Koenigs (conductor)
Publisher: BMG AM
Title: Raga for electric guitar and orchestra
Composer: Andrew Ford
Performer: Zane Banks (guitar), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and
Benjamin Northey (conductor)
Title: Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra ('My Dear
Benjamin')
Composer: Lyle Chan
Text: Benjamin Britten
Performer: Andrew Goodwin (tenor), Michael Duke (saxophone), the
Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Paul Kildea (conductor)
Title: The Witching Hour
Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin
Performer: Australian World Orchestra, Alexander Briger
(conductor) and soloists
Publisher: Hal Leonard/Boosey & Hawkes Group
Performance of the Year
Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers
Title: Agnus Dei (Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep)
Composer: Paul Stanhope
Performer: Benjamin Beilman and Andrew Tyson
Title: Cerulean Orbits
Composer: Jane Stanley
Performer: Michael Kieran Harvey
Title: Piano Concerto
Composer: Yitzhak Yedid
Performer: Peter de Jager
Title: Piano Sonata
Composer: Chris Dench
Award for Excellence by an Organisation
Speak Percussion for their 2016 program and sustained contribution to Australian music
Synergy & Taikoz Limited for activities and achievements of the two new music ensembles Synergy Percussion and Taikoz
Tura New Music for their 2016 program and sustained contribution to Australian music for over 30 years
Zephyr Quartet for performances, collaborations, commissions and recordings in 2016
Award for Excellence by an Individual
Cat Hope for performance, academia, composition, mentoring and advocacy
Daryl Buckley for over 30 years of contribution to the international projection of Australian contemporary performance, ideas and practice
David Bridie for the music project, a Bit na Ta
Tos Mahoney for his work with new music in Western Australia in 2016
Award for Excellence in Music Education
Goulburn Regional Conservatorium, Canberra Symphony Orchestra and University of Canberra for 'The Goulburn Concerto'
Moorambilla Voices for their 2016 season
Sydney Symphony Orchestra for their annual teacher-training program, TunED-Up!
West Australian Symphony Orchestra for their 2016 education program
Award for Excellence in a Regional Area
Four Winds for their 2016 Easter Festival
Ngarukuruwala for Ngiya awungarra (I Am Here, Now), ethnographic recordings of Tiwi song material
Primal Dance Company for modern dance work, Footmarks
Tura New Music for their 2016 Regional Program
Award for Excellence in Experimental Music
Clocked Out with Bruce and Jocelyn Wolfe for 'The Piano Mill' Project
JOLT Arts for 'The Book of Daughters' mini-festival
Matthias Schack-Arnott for his percussion duo, Anicca
Robert Curgenven for Climata, a performance, installation and recording project
Award for Excellence in Jazz
Andrea Keller for the creation, presentation and release of contemporary jazz in 2016
Daniel Susnjar for Afro-Peruvian Jazz musical activities including album Moth to a Flame and Australian / US touring
Ross McHenry for the album Child of Somebody and various performances
Stu Hunter for the recording, world premiere and national tour of The Migration
Further links
Art Music Awards - AMC Online
© Australian Music Centre (2017) — Permission must be obtained from the AMC if you wish to reproduce this article either online or in print.
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