Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address
The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address was established in 1999 by the New Music Network, in honour of one of Australia’s great international composers. In the spirit of Glanville-Hicks, an outstanding advocate of Australian music delivers the address each year, challenging the status quo and raising issues of importance in new music.
Since its founding, the Address has developed into a landmark event in the Australian new music scene. The Australian Music Centre took on the important custodianship of the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address in 2018.Speakers over the years have included leading Australian composers, performing artists, educators and artistic directors. The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address is the single most important national forum for contemporary music discourse.
2024 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address
The annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address was delivered by Nat Bartsch, on Monday 2 December 2024 at the Hanson Dyer Hall, The Ian Potter Southbank Centre in Melbourne (Naarm).
Nat Bartsch is a double ARIA nominated pianist, composer, producer, mentor and neurodiversity advocate. Her emotive, lyrical music creates a space for the listener to be in the moment, created with a unique blend of neoclassical composition, jazz harmony and improvisation, and ethereal ambient effects. Often addressing universal themes from her own, intimate perspective, Nat’s music is enjoyed by a broad audience - often in profoundly personal moments. Her discography includes her acclaimed albums Forever, and No Time at All and Hope, and she has recently established her own record label, Amica Records.
Delivering the year's Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address, Nat drew from her own personal experience, discussing the topic of neurodiversity in music, and how her late diagnosis of autism and ADHD has shaped her music and career.
The 2024 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address was presented in partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.
About the speaker
Nat Bartsch is a double-ARIA nominated pianist, composer, producer, mentor and neurodiversity advocate. Her emotive, lyrical music creates a space for the listener to be in the moment, created with a unique blend of neoclassical composition, jazz harmony and improvisation, and ethereal ambient effects. Often addressing universal themes from her own, intimate perspective, Nat’s music is enjoyed by a broad audience - often in profoundly personal moments. She has performed and toured for more than 15 years, released eight albums of original music and recently established Amica Records after several years releasing music for ABC Music. She is particularly known for her lullaby album Forever, and No Time at All, and her album Hope. Critically acclaimed jazz re-interpretations of these albums cemented Nat's position as a genre-fluid artist.
Nat has been awarded an Art Music Award for Jazz Work of the Year, the Melbourne Prize for Music development award, two ARIA nominations (in jazz and classical categories), AIR, Music Victoria and Bell Award nominations. She holds a degree in jazz improvisation and a Masters in classical composition from the University of Melbourne. Her music has been streamed more than 10 million times. This year, Nat is Artist-in-Residence at Melbourne Recital Centre and is releasing a new album, Forever Changed, which explores and celebrates the neurodivergent experience of music in immersive surround sound.
Nat has composed commissions for Grigoryan Brothers, Muses Trio, Matt Withers and Sally Whitwell, Plexus Collective, Inventi Ensemble, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and ABC Jazz.Image: Kristoffer Paulsen
Peggy Glanville-Hicks Addresses to date
1999 James Murdoch
2000 Barry Conyngham
2001 Liza Lim
2002 Roland Peelman
2003 John Davis
2004 Julian Burnside
2005 Richard Mills
2006 Daryl Buckley
2007 Jon Rose
2008 Sandy Evans
2009 Robyn Archer
2010 Simone Young
2011 Lyndon Terracini
2012 Michael Kieran Harvey
2013 Genevieve Lacey
2014 Warren Burt
2015 Richard Gill
2016 Nicole Canham
2017 Kim Williams
2018 Cat Hope
2019 Deborah Cheetham
2020 Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
2020 Sunny Kim
2021 Sia Ahmad, Zela Margossian, Bree van Reyk
2022 William Barton, Dr Anita Collins
2023 Elena Kats-Chernin
Past Addresses
2021 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address
A panel event featuring three artists: Zela Margossian, Sia Ahmad and Bree van Reyk
2018 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address
'All Music for Everyone: Working Towards Gender Equality and Empowerment in Australian Music Culture'
By Cat Hope
2017 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address
'I wonder as I wander
(The Digital Paradox: Paradise or Purgatory)'
By Kim Williams