Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

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

Finalist announcement on the APRA AMCOS website