Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

A new round of Art Music Fund grants is now open for applications by Australian and New Zealand art music composers. Eleven grants of $5,000 each will be allocated to nine Australian and two New Zealand composers. The Art Music Fund is an initiative of APRA AMCOS, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and, for the first time, SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.

The funding is available for the creation of commissioned work that is innovative, displays professional compositional craft and represents a benchmark of excellence in its field. The intention is to support composers to create works with a long artistic and performance life - whether it is presented in a concert hall, via live stream, filmed, as a recording, installation or other formats. Applications close on 16 February 2022 at 5pm AEDT, and successful applicants will be notified by the end of April

In the six previous rounds of funding, supported projects have included Sandy Evans' acclaimed Bridge of Dreams, Lisa Cheney's music theatre work The Owl and the Pussycat and Eve de Castro-Robinson's powerful climate piece Clarion. Recent world premieres include 2020 recipients Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey's Witness Stand, which had its world premiere at the Perth Festival in February 2021 and was recently part of Festival Homo Novus in Latvia; and composer Jodi Rose's The Global Bridge Symphony which was premiered at a new music festival in Norway.

'It's a pleasure and honour to continue to partner with APRA AMCOS and now SOUNZ Aotearoa New Zealand for the 2022 Art Music Fund. We are proud to support our Australian music creators to develop and present new innovative compositions, telling our stories', said Catherine Haridy, CEO of the Australian Music Centre.

'SOUNZ is excited to be partnering with APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre in this wonderful opportunity for composers. We are delighted that the number of grants has increased to award two composers from Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022. We are looking forward to the new works that result from these grants', said Diana Marsh, Chief Executive of SOUNZ.

'We are very proud to support the incredible work done by Australian and New Zealand composers in partnership with SOUNZ and our friends at the Australian Music Centre. This opportunity comes on the back of some really challenging times for our members and we look forward to hearing and experiencing new music from this great initiative', said Alison Wright, Head of Membership, APRA AMCOS.

> To view guidelines and to apply, please go to apraamcos.com.au/artmusicfund