Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Image: 2026 Art Music Award finalists  

APRA AMCOS and the (AMC) have announced the finalists for the 2026 Art Music Awards, celebrating the creators, performers and organisations shaping Australia's vibrant art music landscape.

Finalists for 15 award categories have been revealed ahead of this year's event on Wednesday 19 August at The Timber Yard, Melbourne, spanning categories including composition, performance, music education, sound art and experimental practice.

Selected from a highly competitive pool of nominations submitted by peers and audiences, this year's finalists reflect the remarkable breadth, innovation and excellence of Australian art music.

Co-leading this year's finalists is acclaimed performer, composer and sound artist Aviva Endean, who has secured three nods. She is recognised twice in the Performance of the Year: Jazz and Improvised Music category for Lung Swara with Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott, and for The Cloud Maker with Freya Schack-Arnott, Jasmin Win-Ying Leung, Maria Moles, Sunny Kim and Te Kahreremoa Taumata. The Cloud Maker is also a finalist for Work of the Year: Jazz and Improvised Music.

Chinese-Australian composer and performer, Mindy Meng Wang, has also earned her place as a finalist for three awards - Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice and Performance of the Year: Soloist for her performance of Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Wang and Monica Lim's Opera for the Dead is also a finalist in Work of the Year: Dramatic.

Composer Damian Barbeler's time-and-space-bending live cinematic concert collaboration, Duet for One performed by Sonya Lifschitz, has also been named a finalist in both Work of the Year: Solo and Small Ensemble and Performance of the Year: Soloist.

Kate Milligan, winner of the 2025 Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art award, returns as a finalist in the category with Dark Oceanography, collaboratively developed by a team of artistic and scientific researchers including Aaron Wyatt, Louise Devenish and Navid Constantinou.

Reflecting the strength and depth of this year's nominations, finalists have also been announced early for the Luminary Award National Individual and National Organisation categories, including Assoc. Prof. Dr Jeanell Carrigan, Daryl Buckley and Musica Viva Australia for their demonstrated sustained contribution to Australian art music.

The remaining honours, including the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music and the State Luminary Awards will be announced in August.

The Art Music Awards is an annual celebration of the national art music community, recognising excellence among creators, performers and community leaders in contemporary classical music, jazz, improvised music, sound art and experimental practices.

2026 ART MUSIC AWARDS
5.30pm, Wednesday 19 August 2026
The Timber Yard, 351 Plummer St, Port Melbourne, VIC
Hosted by Namila Benson with guest presenters Auro Go and Connor D'Netto, with music curation by Sia Ahmad

2026 Art Music Award Finalists

Work of the Year: Choral

Title: Adira Arenio and Agnus Dei
Composer: Alice Chance with Kaylynn Zaro OAM and Noel Zaro OAM
Performer: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs VOX and Elizabeth Scott (conductor)

Title: Mahāsāgar
Composer: Paul Stanhope*
Text: Rhys Halkidis, Steve Hawke, Michael Leunig, Cass Lynch, Alexander Maloof and Elizabeth Riddell
Publisher: Wise Music*
Performer: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sara Macliver (soprano), Andrew Goodwin (tenor), and Asher Fisch (conductor)

Title: There is Music
Composer: Stephen Leek
Text: Jane Greenwood
Performer: Brisbane Chamber Choir

Title: Vivemus Cantare
Composer: Carl Crossin
Text: James Wheldon Johnson, Walt Whitman and Carl Crossin
Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers and Christie Anderson (conductor)

Work of the Year: Dramatic

Title: Hiroshima mon Amour
Composer: Rósa Lind
Text: Marguerite Duras
Performer: Bozzini Quartet and Chants Libre

Title: Living Poems of the Sea
Composer: Lyle Chan
Performer: Sally Walker (flutes, narration, percussion)

Title: Opera for the Dead
Composer: Mindy Meng Wang and Monica Lim
Performer: Mindy Meng Wang, Monica Lim, Yu-Tien Lin, Nils Hobiger and Alexander Meagher

Title: Pigeon Humongous
Composer: Nicholas Roder
Performer: Nicholas Roder, Merinda Dias-Jayasinha, Lena Douglas, Lewis Coleman, Sydney Dance Company, and Harrison Ritchie-Jones (choreographer)

Work of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music

Title: Northern Rhapsody
Composer: Hamed Sadeghi
Performer: Eishan Ensemble (Hamed Sadeghi, Michael Avgenicos, Max Alduca and Adem Yilmaz)

Title: The Cloud Maker
Composer: Aviva Endean, Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Sunny Kim, Maria Moles and Freya Schack-Arnott
Performer: The Cloud Maker

Title: To Kill A Magic We Got Used To
Composer: Aaron Choulai and Roman MC
Performer: Australian Art Orchestra

Title: When All Is Still and Quiet
Composer: Nat Bartsch
Publisher: Origin Music Publishing
Performer: VCA Secondary School Improvisation Ensemble & Chamber Choir

Work of the Year: Large Ensemble

Title: Nguy Gapu (Ocean Water)
Composer: Rrawun Maymuru and Nick Wales*
Publisher: Wise Music*
Performer: Rrawun Maymuru and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

Title: Symphony No. 4, Op. 119
Composer: Andrew Schultz
Performer: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Otto Tausk (conductor)

Title: Clarinet Concertino: Second Chance
Composer: Ben Robinson
Performer: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Eloise Fisher (solo clarinet) and Simon Reade (conductor)

Title: the ocean's dream of itself
Composer: Alex Turley
Performer: Sasha Cooke, Donald Runnicles and Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra

Title: The way it soars, the way it dances
Composer: Naomi Dodd
Performer: Jennifer Owen and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Work of the Year: Medium Ensemble

Title: BloodRiverRootTree
Composer: Noemi Liba Friedman
Performer: Meg Cohen, Phoebe Green, Alex McDonald, Roseanne Hunt, Peter Neville, Hamish Gould, Sarvenaz Monfaredi, Justine Anderson, Shelby MacCrae, Sophie Deka and Jakob Bragg (conductor)

Title: Four Rooms
Composer: Lee Bradshaw
Performer: Flinders String Quartet and Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Players

Title: The Big Idea
Composer: Matthew Shlomowitz
Performer: Rubiks Collective and Lotte Betts-Dean

Title: Sonnet of an Emigrant
Composer: Cathy Milliken
Performer: Takacs Quartet

Work of the Year: Solo & Small Ensemble

Title: Duet for One
Composer/Multimedia: Damian Barbeler
Multimedia: Tim Gruchy
Performer: Sonya Lifschitz

Title: Killing the Angel in the House
Composer: Anne Cawrse
Performer: Eliza Shephard

Title: Tidelines
Composer: Zela Papageorgiou, Alistair McLean and Hamish Upton
Performer: Zela Papageorgiou and Hamish Upton

Title: Yama no Yume
Composer: Jim Franklin
Performer: Jim Franklin

Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art

Title: Dark Oceanography
Composer: Kate Milligan
Music Technologist: Aaron Wyatt
Oceanographer: Navid Constantinou
Performer: Louise Devenish (Director), Niki Johnson, and Sofia Carbonara (The Sound Collectors Lab)

Title: Exhalation
Composer: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
Visual Artists: Vuth Lyno, Pal Panha, Leang Titnita and Phan Sophorn
Performance Contributors: Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey, Helen Svoboda, Winter McQuinn, Robert Larsen (speaker design), Tom McKeand (sound design) and Pat Telfer (sound engineer)

Title: For A Moment the Sky Knew My Name
Composer: Peter Knight
Performer: Peter Knight

Title: Swell
Composer: Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh
Performer: Phoebe Green

Performance of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music

Performer: Aviva Endean, Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott
Title: Lung Swara
Composer: Aviva Endean, Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott

Performer: Mad Vantage
Title: PRESS
Composer: Selene Messinis and Timothy Cox

Performer: The Cloud Maker
Title: The Cloud Maker
Composer: Aviva Endean, Sunny Kim, Maria Moles, Te Kahreremoa Taumata, Freya Schack-Arnott and Jasmin Win-Ying Leung

Performer: Delay 45 and Ensemble Apex
Title: Ghosts Between Streams II
Composer: Tom Avgenicos

Performance of the Year: Classical & Experimental

Performer: Australian String Quartet & Dr Lou Bennett AM
Title: nyilamum song cycles
Composer: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope*
Publisher: Wise Music*

Performer: Sonja Schebeck with Joshua Frazer and Allie Wang
Title: LIMBO Sonata
Composer: Chloé Charody

Performer: Speak Percussion
Title: Pigeons
Composer: Eugene Ughetti
Text: Kaylie Melville, Nick Roux, Jason Lehane, Bosco Shaw, Keith Tucker, Kate Davis and Bruce Gladwin

Performer: Duckworth Hullick Duo
Title: Disruptive Critters
Composer: James Hullick and Jonathan Duckworth

Performance of the Year: Soloist

Performer: Claire Edwardes (soloist) with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey (conductor)
Title: Dances with Devils
Composer: Iain Grandage

Performer: Mindy Meng Wang (soloist) and MSO
Title: Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra
Composer: Jessica Wells

Performer: Nick Russoniello
Title: Air Mass Suite
Composer: Nick Russoniello

Performer: Sonya Lifschitz
Title: Duet for One
Composer/Multimedia: Damian Barbeler
Multimedia: Tim Gruchy

Award for Excellence in Music Education

• Ensemble Offspring for Hatched Academy
• Speak Percussion for Sounds Unheard Program & 25th Anniversary Exhibition
• Tim Nikolsky for Australian Jazz Real Book
• Wollongong Conservatorium of Music for Music in Schools program

Award for Excellence in a Regional Area

• Chamber Music Adelaide and Port Augusta Performing Arts for Where We Meet: Chamber Music
• Moorambilla Voices for sustained leadership in delivering artistically excellent, culturally grounded music-making in regional and remote NSW
• Tura and Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre for Buga Yanu Junba (Songs for Young Children)
• Van Diemen's Band for VDB Lunchbox Concerts

Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice

• Chamber Made for 2025 presentations and artist development activities
• Mindy Meng Wang for excellence in experimental music and ongoing contribution to the Australian art music scene
• The Sonicrats for The Music Makers' program
• Shaun Fogarty for SOUNDSTONE

Luminary Awards - National Awards (Organisation)

• Flinders Quartet
• Forest Collective
• Musica Viva Australia
• Rubiks Collective

Luminary Awards - National Awards (Individual)

• Assoc Prof Dr Jeanell Carrigan AM
• Daryl Buckley
• Jeremy Rose
• Jon Smeathers