2026 Art Music Awards Finalists Announced

The finalists of the 2026 Art Music Awards have been revealed.

Celebrating the creators, performers and organisations shaping Australia's vibrant art music landscape, this year's 15 categories span composition, performance, music education, sound art and experimental practice. 

Finalists were selected from a highly competitive pool of nominations submitted by peers and audiences, reflecting the remarkable breadth, innovation and excellence of Australian art music, according to APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre.

Aviva Endean and Mindy Meng Wang lead this year's nominees with three nods each. 

Endean is recognised twice in the Performance of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music category for Lung Swara with Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott, and for The Cloud Maker with Freya Schack-Arnott, Jasmin Win-Ying Leung, Maria Moles, Sunny Kim and Te Kahreremoa Taumata. The Cloud Maker is also a finalist for Work of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music.

Wang, meanwhile, is a finalist in the Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice and Performance of the Year: Soloist categories for her performance of Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Wang and Monica Lim's Opera for the Dead is also a finalist in Work of the Year: Dramatic.

Composer Damian Barbeler has been nominated in the Work of the Year: Solo & Small Ensemble and Performance of the Year: Soloist categories for his time-and-space-bending live cinematic concert collaboration, Duet for One, performed by Sonya Lifschitz. 

After winning the World of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art award last year, Kate Milligan has once again been nominated. This year's nomination comes for Dark Oceanography, collaboratively developed by a team of artistic and scientific researchers including Aaron Wyatt, Louise Devenish and Navid Constantinou.

The finalists have also been announced early for the Luminary Award National Individual and National Organisation categories. The remaining categories, including the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music and the State Luminary Awards, will be announced in August.

See the full list of finalists below. 

The Art Music Awards are an annual celebration of the national art music community, recognising excellence among creators, performers and community leaders in contemporary classical music, jazz, improvised music, sound art and experimental practices.

The 2026 edition will take place at The Timber Yard in Melbourne on Wednesday, August 19th. It will be hosted by Namila Benson with guest presenters Auro Go and Connor D’Netto, with music curation by Sia Ahmad. See here for more information. 

2026 Art Music Award Finalists: 

Work of the Year: Choral

Adira Arenio and Agnus Dei
Composer: Alice Chance with Kaylynn Zaro OAM and Noel Zaro OAM
Performer: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs VOX and Elizabeth Scott (conductor)

Mahāsāgar
Composer: Paul Stanhope*
Text: Rhys Halkidis, Steve Hawke, Michael Leunig, Cass Lynch, Alexander Maloof and Elizabeth Riddell
Publisher: Wise Music*
Performer: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sara Macliver (soprano), Andrew Goodwin (tenor), and Asher Fisch (conductor)

There is Music
Composer: Stephen Leek
Text: Jane Greenwood
Performer: Brisbane Chamber Choir

Vivemus Cantare
Composer: Carl Crossin
Text: James Wheldon Johnson, Walt Whitman and Carl Crossin
Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers and Christie Anderson (conductor)

Work of the Year: Dramatic

Hiroshima mon Amour
Composer: Rósa Lind
Text: Marguerite Duras
Performer: Bozzini Quartet and Chants Libre

Living Poems of the Sea
Composer: Lyle Chan
Performer: Sally Walker (flutes, narration, percussion)

Opera for the Dead
Composer: Mindy Meng Wang and Monica Lim
Performer: Mindy Meng Wang, Monica Lim, Yu-Tien Lin, Nils Hobiger and Alexander Meagher

Pigeon Humongous
Composer: Nicholas Roder
Performer: Nicholas Roder, Merinda Dias-Jayasinha, Lena Douglas, Lewis Coleman, Sydney Dance Company, and Harrison Ritchie-Jones (choreographer)

Work of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music

Northern Rhapsody
Composer: Hamed Sadeghi
Performer: Eishan Ensemble (Hamed Sadeghi, Michael Avgenicos, Max Alduca and Adem Yilmaz)

The Cloud Maker
Composer: Aviva Endean, Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Sunny Kim, Maria Moles and Freya Schack-Arnott
Performer: The Cloud Maker

To Kill A Magic We Got Used To
Composer: Aaron Choulai and Roman MC
Performer: Australian Art Orchestra

When All Is Still and Quiet
Composer: Nat Bartsch
Publisher: Origin Music Publishing
Performer: VCA Secondary School Improvisation Ensemble & Chamber Choir

Work of the Year: Large Ensemble

Nguy Gapu (Ocean Water)
Composer: Rrawun Maymuru and Nick Wales*
Publisher: Wise Music*
Performer: Rrawun Maymuru and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

Symphony No. 4, Op. 119
Composer: Andrew Schultz
Performer: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Otto Tausk (conductor)

Clarinet Concertino: Second Chance
Composer: Ben Robinson
Performer: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Eloise Fisher (solo clarinet) and Simon Reade (conductor)

the ocean's dream of itself
Composer: Alex Turley
Performer: Sasha Cooke, Donald Runnicles and Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra

The way it soars, the way it dances
Composer: Naomi Dodd
Performer: Jennifer Owen and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Work of the Year: Medium Ensemble

BloodRiverRootTree
Composer: Noemi Liba Friedman
Performer: Meg Cohen, Phoebe Green, Alex McDonald, Roseanne Hunt, Peter Neville, Hamish Gould, Sarvenaz Monfaredi, Justine Anderson, Shelby MacCrae, Sophie Deka and Jakob Bragg (conductor)

Four Rooms
Composer: Lee Bradshaw
Performer: Flinders String Quartet and Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Players

The Big Idea
Composer: Matthew Shlomowitz
Performer: Rubiks Collective and Lotte Betts-Dean

Sonnet of an Emigrant
Composer: Cathy Milliken
Performer: Takacs Quartet

Work of the Year: Solo & Small Ensemble

Duet for One
Composer/Multimedia: Damian Barbeler
Multimedia: Tim Gruchy
Performer: Sonya Lifschitz

Killing the Angel in the House
Composer: Anne Cawrse
Performer: Eliza Shephard

Tidelines
Composer: Zela Papageorgiou, Alistair McLean and Hamish Upton
Performer: Zela Papageorgiou and Hamish Upton

Yama no Yume
Composer: Jim Franklin
Performer: Jim Franklin

Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art

Dark Oceanography
Composer: Kate Milligan
Music Technologist: Aaron Wyatt
Oceanographer: Navid Constantinou
Performer: Louise Devenish (Director), Niki Johnson, and Sofia Carbonara (The Sound Collectors Lab)

Exhalation
Composer: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
Visual Artists: Vuth Lyno, Pal Panha, Leang Titnita and Phan Sophorn
Performance Contributors: Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey, Helen Svoboda, Winter McQuinn, Robert Larsen (speaker design), Tom McKeand (sound design) and Pat Telfer (sound engineer)

For A Moment the Sky Knew My Name
Composer: Peter Knight
Performer: Peter Knight

Swell
Composer: Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh
Performer: Phoebe Green

Performance of the Year: Jazz & Improvised Music

Lung Swara
Performer: Aviva Endean, Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott
Composer: Aviva Endean, Cahwatie Sugiarto and Matthias Schack-Arnott

PRESS
Performer: Mad Vantage
Composer: Selene Messinis and Timothy Cox

The Cloud Maker
Performer: The Cloud Maker
Composer: Aviva Endean, Sunny Kim, Maria Moles, Te Kahreremoa Taumata, Freya Schack-Arnott and Jasmin Win-Ying Leung

Ghosts Between Streams II
Performer: Delay 45 and Ensemble Apex
Composer: Tom Avgenicos

Performance of the Year: Classical & Experimental

nyilamum song cycles
Performer: Australian String Quartet & Dr Lou Bennett AM
Composer: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope*
Publisher: Wise Music*

LIMBO Sonata
Performer: Sonja Schebeck with Joshua Frazer and Allie Wang
Composer: Chloé Charody

Pigeons
Performer: Speak Percussion
Composer: Eugene Ughetti
Text: Kaylie Melville, Nick Roux, Jason Lehane, Bosco Shaw, Keith Tucker, Kate Davis and Bruce Gladwin

Disruptive Critters
Performer: Duckworth Hullick Duo
Composer: James Hullick and Jonathan Duckworth

Performance of the Year: Soloist

Dances with Devils
Performer: Claire Edwardes (soloist) with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey (conductor)
Composer: Iain Grandage

Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra
Performer: Mindy Meng Wang (soloist) and MSO
Composer: Jessica Wells

Air Mass Suite
Performer: Nick Russoniello
Composer: Nick Russoniello

Duet for One
Performer: Sonya Lifschitz
Composer/Multimedia: Damian Barbeler
Multimedia: Tim Gruchy

Award for Excellence in Music Education

• Ensemble Offspring for Hatched Academy
• Speak Percussion for Sounds Unheard Program & 25th Anniversary Exhibition
• Tim Nikolsky for Australian Jazz Real Book
• Wollongong Conservatorium of Music for Music in Schools program

Award for Excellence in a Regional Area

• Chamber Music Adelaide and Port Augusta Performing Arts for Where We Meet: Chamber Music
• Moorambilla Voices for sustained leadership in delivering artistically excellent, culturally grounded music-making in regional and remote NSW
• Tura and Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre for Buga Yanu Junba (Songs for Young Children)
• Van Diemen's Band for VDB Lunchbox Concerts

Award for Excellence in a Experimental Practice

• Chamber Made for 2025 presentations and artist development activities
• Mindy Meng Wang for excellence in experimental music and ongoing contribution to the Australian art music scene
• The Sonicrats for The Music Makers' program
• Shaun Fogarty for SOUNDSTONE

Luminary Awards - National Awards (Organisation)

• Flinders Quartet
• Forest Collective
• Musica Viva Australia
• Rubiks Collective

Luminary Awards - National Awards (Individual)

• Assoc Prof Dr Jeanell Carrigan AM
• Daryl Buckley
• Jeremy Rose
• Jon Smeathers