Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Ziggy Ramo  

The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers House Trust has announced that Gina Williams and Ziggy Ramo have been awarded the Prelude residencies for 2025.

Gina Williams will be in residence at Gallop House in Perth (Boorloo), while Ziggy Ramo takes residency into the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers House in Sydney (Gadigal).

The residencies award role occupancy of the houses for 12 months, as well as $15,000 to assist with living costs.

Hip-hop singer, songwriter Ziggy Ramo has received numerous awards and nominations for his work. His work speaks to the silenced injustices of Aboriginal Australia, and other social issues. He has also composed music for the TV series Black Snow, and collaborated with Tim Minchin on a short musical film that went on to win a Grand Prix award at Cannes Lions festival.

On receiving the residency at the Peggy Glanville-Hicks House, he said, "Throughout my career it has become apparent to me that the most valuable commodity is time. The Peggy Glanville-Hicks House gives composers the gift of security and space, where ideas can be nurtured at their own unique pace. The house is a safe haven for creativity and composition, and I am truly honoured to be a recipient of the residency."

Gina Williams is a prouod Balladong, Whadjuk, Goreng (Noongar) woman with familial links to the Gitja people of the East Kimberley. With guitarist Guy Ghouse, she writes and performs songs exclusively in Noongar language, which have resulted in four albums and two operas with the West Australian Opera, with a new commission to be staged in 2026.

Currently on tour in the UK, Gina said, "Receiving the news that I had been awarded this residency was incredibly humbling. The prestigious residency is highly competitive, and the amazing privilege is not lost on me. I am super excited to be able to utilise the space to grow existing ideas and write new works, but also to reconnect old knowledge, ancient language and the community it represents to this place through art, songs and storytelling. I am incredibly grateful and honoured."

The Prelude program is built on the vision of internationally-renowned Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, who bequeathed her terrace home in Sydney as a haven for composers. Since 1994, it has housed 29 Australian composers for long-term residencies. Recent recipients of the Prelude residency have included Matthias Schack-Arnott, Olivia Davies, Brenda Gifford, and Anne Cawrse.

The program is made possible through the support of Creative Australia, the National Trust of WA, APRA AMCOS, and Create NSW.