News April 27, 2017

Art Music Fund 2017 recipients announced, two thirds of funding goes to women

2017 ART MUSIC FUND RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
WOMEN RECEIVE TWO THIRDS OF FUNDING

More than $110,000 has been awarded to nine composers for the creation of new works through the second Art Music Fund.

The successful applicants include established and emerging composers, and more than half are women. In addition, 66% of the total funding pool has been awarded to women.

The 2017 Art Music Fund recipients are Natasha Anderson, Newton Armstrong, Lisa Cheney,Erik Griswold, Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, Eve Klein, Dylan Lardelli, Kate Moore and Eugene Ughetti.

From a major operatic work for young audiences to an experimental work using custom built ice instruments, their funded works vary in scale and scope.

John Davis, CEO of the Australian Music Centre:

“These works present a broad spectrum of contemporary practice in Australasian art music. In its second year, it’s fantastic to see the Art Music Fund again reflect the diversity and breadth of the work being created by local composers.”

In line with the aims of the Fund – to create commissioned work that is complemented by an exploitation program – the funded works already have performances lined up around the world in countries including the USA, China, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and Japan, as well as at home in Australia and New Zealand.

2017 Art Music Fund recipient Eve Klein:

“The Art Music Fund provides an avenue for contemporary art music to flourish. Because it encourages participants to have clear destinations for the work, the composition process looks outward towards its audiences.

“It’s very humbling to look back on the list of previous recipients and the calibre of the work that has been achieved. These are the artists defining what art music means in the Australian context.”

In recognition of the limited opportunities for art music composers to have their works performed, APRA AMCOS initiated the Art Music Fund in 2016 with support from the Australian Music Centre. In 2017, the Fund received a much appreciated $10,000 boost thanks to an Australian Cultural Fund campaign.

Art Music Fund applications were assessed on the viability of the proposed project, the quality of the work, and the strategy for the life and reach of the work.

2016 recipients were Sandy Evans, Alexander Garsden, Samuel Holloway, Cat Hope, James Hullick, Lisa Illean, Liza Lim, Mark Oliveiro, Matthias Schack-Arnott, Dan Thorpe, Meg Travers and Erkki Veltheim.

2017 Art Music Fund recipients

COMPOSER	LOCATION	FUNDED PROJECT
Natasha Anderson	VIC	The composition ofSuppression, a 30-minute ensemble work for 12 players and spatialised electronics. To be performed in Australia, the USA and Germany.
Newton Armstrong	UK	The composition of a new ensemble work which engages with the complex perceptual dynamics activated by the paintings of Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri. The work will be presented in the UK and recorded for release on the Another Timbre label.
Lisa Cheney	VIC	The composition of a major new 40 minute operatic work for children, based on Edward Lear’s poemThe Owl and the Pussycat.
Erik Griswold	QLD	The creation of a new work,Action Music 2, for performances in Australia, USA, Canada, France and Ireland.
Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh	US	The composition of a new work for an octet lineup of the ELISION ensemble, to be developed from 2017-2018 for a premiere in early 2019 and subsequent performances in the USA and China.
Eve Klein	QLD	Vocal Womb, a sound installation and operatic performance work externalising the hidden, fleshy and deeply personal workings of the voice from inside a singer’s body. Audiences enter a reverberant dome where they manipulate real-time audio and video feeds taken from inside the body of an opera singer who is performing an intimate work composed for the dome.
Dylan Lardelli	NZ	The composition of a new work for Musikfabrik. This will be for three musicians, and will include performances in Germany, New Zealand, and Japan.
Kate Moore	NSW	The composition ofEximia, a song cycle about the history, heritage, environment and women’s culture of the lower Hunter Valley using the personified metaphor of Eucalyptus trees native to the Hunter Valley dry sclerophyll forest. It is a 60-minute set of short compositions for two sopranos, violin, percussion, electronics and sound engineer designed for touring in Australia and the USA.
Eugene Ughetti	VIC	Polar Force, an immersive live performance combining custom built ice instruments with Antarctic field recordings, set within a chilled inflatable performance space. Polar Force is a phenomenological investigation of extreme wind and temperature through hyper-realistic art.