Art Music Awards Announce 2017 Winners, Celebrating The Best In Jazz, Experimental & More

The best local music being made outside the mainstream had its moment in the sun at the 2017 Art Music Awards ceremony, held at Sydney's City Recital Hall last night.

The nation's finest composers, performers and educators from the realms of jazz, experimental and art music converged to see 11 national and eight state-based winners named as part of the seventh annual event, with the charge being led by dual winner Liza Lim, a Melbourne-based composer who won both Instrumental Work Of The Year (for the 35-minute-long How Forests Think) and Vocal/Choral Work Of The Year (for her opera Tree Of Codes).

Other winners included Lyle Chan (Orchestral Work Of The Year, My Dear Benjamin), Peter De Jager (Performance Of The Year, for his take on Chris Dench's Piano Sonata), Tom O'Halloran (Jazz Work Of The Year, Now Noise) and Andrea Keller (Award For Excellence In Jazz), among many others.

Tasmania's MONA also got a look-in for its work on 2016's MONA FOMA event, winning the state award for Excellence By An Organisation, while influential jazz drummer and band-leader John Pochée OAM was bestowed the Award For Distinguished Services To Australian Music.

The Art Music Awards also featured several performances, curated by Gabriella Smart, with hosting by Simon Marnie and presenters Sandy Evans, Paul Mason, Stephen Lias, Natalie Williams and Marshall McGuire.

See below for the full winners' list, and head to APRA AMCOS' website for more information about the event.

2017 Art Music Awards — Winners

Distinguished Services to Australian Music
John Pochée OAM
 
Orchestral Work of the Year
Title:

Composer:
Text:
Performer:
 
Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra
(My Dear Benjamin)
Lyle Chan
Benjamin Britten and Wulff Scherchen
Andrew Goodwin tenor, Michael Duke saxophone, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Paul Kildea conductor
 
Performance of the Year
 
Performer:
Title:
Composer:
Peter de Jager
Piano Sonata
Chris Dench
 
Vocal/Choral Work of the Year
Title:
Composer:
Performer:

Publishers:
 
Tree of Codes
Liza Lim
Ensemble MusikFabrik; Cologne Opera, Clement Power conductor, Massimo Furlan director
Universal Music Publishing MGB Australia
obo G. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH
 
Jazz Work of the Year
 
Title:
Composer:
Performer:
Now Noise
Tom O’Halloran
Memory of Elements
 
Instrumental Work of the Year
Title:
Composer:
Performer:
Publishers:
 
How Forests Think
Liza Lim
ELISION, Wu Wei soloist, Carl Rosman conductor
Universal Music Publishing MGB Australia
obo G. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH
 
Award for Excellence by an Organisation
Speak Percussion for their 2016 program and sustained contribution to Australian music
Award for Excellence by an Individual
Daryl Buckley for over thirty years of contribution to the international projection of Australian contemporary performance, ideas and practice
Award for Excellence in Music Education
Moorambilla Voices for their 2016 season
Award for Excellence in a Regional Area
Tura New Music for their 2016 Regional Program
Award for Excellence in Experimental Music
Clocked Out with Bruce and Jocelyn Wolfe for The Piano Mill Project
Award for Excellence in Jazz
Andrea Keller for the creation, presentation and release of contemporary jazz in 2016

2017 ART MUSIC AWARDS – STATE and TERRITORY AWARDS

ACT Award for Instrumental Work of the Year
The 7 Great Inventions Of The Modern Industrial Age by Sally Greenaway
NSW Award for Excellence in Music Education
Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) for Young Women's Jazz Workshop program
NT Award for Excellence in a Regional Area
Ngarukuruwala for Ngiya Awungarra (I Am Here, Now)
QLD Award for Excellence by an Individual
Vanessa Tomlinson for conceiving and curating the 2016 Australian Percussion Gathering
SA Award for Performance of the Year
Adelaide Chamber Singers for Agnus Dei (Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep) by Paul Stanhope
TAS Award for Excellence by an Organisation
Mona for Mofo 2016
VIC Award for Performance of the Year
Chamber Made Opera for Permission To Speak by Kate Neal
WA Award for Jazz Work Of The Year
Help You Along Your Way by Daniel Susnjar

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