Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Iain Grandage at the Awards announcement ceremony in Canberra  
© Sean Davey

Composer Iain Grandage has been awarded one of the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards. Grandage takes home the $50,000 Individual Award, while the other two awards go to the Indigenous theatre company Ilbijerri ($80,000 Group Award) and producer, festival director Philip Rolfe ($20,000 Facilitator's Prize). The award-winners were announced last week in Canberra.

Iain Grandage has composed and arranged for orchestras and choirs, opera, theatre, dance, cabaret and pop groups, and is also known for wide-ranging collaborations with very different artists and groups. This versatility was remarked upon by the judges:

'Iain is a thrillingly original artist and genius collaborator. The theatre, dance and cabaret stages of Neil Armfield, Michael Kantor, Meow Meow, Splinters Group and the Black Arm Band, to name just a few, have achieved extraordinary dimensions in dramatic narrative through his original music and arrangements, and no less some of the great classical music ensembles of our time, including the Brodsky Quartet. He is a singular and much loved artist whose contribution is close to the heart of our performance culture.'

The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards were created in 1984 by the Trustees of the Sidney Myer Fund, at the time of the 50th anniversary of Sidney Myer's death, to commemorate his life and his love for the arts. The judging panel for this year's awards consisted of Carrillo Gantner AO (Chairman of the Sidney Myer Fund Trustees), Rosemary Myers (Artistic Director, Windmill Theatre Company), Nigel Jamieson (Stage Director), Lyndon Terracini (Artistic Director, Australian Opera), Rob Brookman (General Manager. State Theatre Company of South Australia) and Vanessa Pigrum (Arts & Culture, Darebin City Council).

Further links

Sidney Myer Foundation - Performing Arts Awards