Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Adam Simmons's $50,000 grant goes towards 'The Usefulness of Art' concert series involving the Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Michael Kieran Harvey and his own Creative Music Ensemble  

The Australia Council has announced the successful grant recipients of their most recent funding round. In an increasingly competitive environment, substantial grants between $20,000 and $50,000, for projects and activities by individuals and groups, were secured by William Gardiner (for a 20-minute opera), Paul Grabowsky (for a tour with his trio to Israel, United Arab Emirates and Italy), Thomas Green (for an orchestral work honouring John Curro), Tina Harrod, Stu Hunter, Kupka's Piano (for their 2017 program), Genevieve Lacey (for a music theatre project involving accordionist James Crabb and others), Adam Simmons (for a concert series in collaboration with Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Michael Kieran Harvey and Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble), Joseph Tawadros, and Tralala Blip, among others.

Smaller grants from $10,000 to $20,000 went to Quentin Angus, Julian Banks, Colin Black (creative development in universities in Germany and Ireland and the creation of a new radiophonic work), Cameron Deyell, Stuart Greenbaum (for a new sonata for double bass and piano), Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey (to take Megaphone Project to the Sonica festival, Glasgow), Matthew Sheens, the Muses Trio (for a series of new works by women composers), and Vanessa Tomlinson (for a new work for percussion trio by Kate Neal). Individual grant recipients in the emerging/experimental category included James Hullick and Gail Priest. Percussionist and Ensemble Offspring artistic director Claire Edwardes received funding for a multi-artform project.

Recipients of substantial organisational funding included the Melbourne Jazz Co-operative, Hush Music Foundation (for a composer-in-residence program for six early-career composers, with mentors Matthew Hindson, Stuart Greenbaum, James Ledger, Graeme Koehne, Maria Grenfell and Paul Stanhope), Pinchgut Opera, Queensland Music Festival, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers' Trust, and Topology. Aphids and NORPA received funding for projects.

In the individual development grants category, recipients included ELISION artistic director, guitarist Daryl Buckley (for a series of international exchange and collaborations in order to explore the pedal steel guitar and its application in contemporary classical music), pianist Zubin Kanga (for a series of mentorships), and percussionist Eugene Ughetti (to undertake professional development through international mentorships).

> For a full list of grant recipients in this round, please see the grant list on the Australia Council for the Arts website and search by date (decision date 14 December) or category.

> For details about the next grant round, closing on 7 February, and how to apply, see the Funding section of the Australia Council website.