Stars of Australian New Music Shine - Winners of the 2008 Classical Music Awards
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Australian jazz pioneer, Judy Bailey, received the award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music. This prestigious award recognises her enormous contribution to Australian new music through her role as a mentor, composer and educator. A brilliant musician and musical director, Judy has played an instrumental role in the development of contemporary jazz in Australia and the fusion of the classical and jazz genres.
A founding teacher in jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music – where she still teaches today – and Musical Director of the Sydney Youth Jazz Ensemble, Judy is a passionate and active member of the Australian new music community. Judy Bailey's Jazz Connection is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the provision of high quality education and training in jazz for youth, ensuring that the craft of musical improvisation is alive and well in a whole new generation of musicians. Honouring their mentor, Jazz Connection performed two of Judy's compositions to close the Awards ceremony, held at the Playhouse Theatre of the Sydney Opera House.
Dick Letts' distinguished career as an arts manager and advocate of Australian music was recognised with the presentation of the Long-Term Contribution to the Advancement of Australian Music. Founder of the Music Council of Australia, President of the International Music Council is also the former director of the Australian Music Centre.
Colin Bright picked up the award for Best Composition by an Australian Composer for his dramatic work The Last Whale; a topical piece that connects recorded whale sounds with live instrumental and vocal sextet. Performed by The Song Company in 2007, the musical material ranges from liturgical Dies Irae choruses to contemporary beat-driven music. The lyrics combine scientific reports on whale extinction with liturgical text from the Requiem Mass.
While three of the finalists for Best Performance of an Australian Composition were in prestigious international concerts, the winners wove their magic on home soil. Clarinetist Catherine McCorkill and the Australia Ensemble took out this award for a performance of Nigel Westlake's Rare Sugar. Westlake – who composed the piece specifically for McCorkill and the Ensemble – infused the work with playfulness and jazz-like qualities. The judges were particularly impressed by McCorkill's virtuosic display in this technically demanding work.
New music in the West is thriving, thanks to the festival and touring program of Tura New Music, winner of the Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation Award. Over 17 great days, the 2007 Festival included 52 premieres of new music and 89 Australian works in 45 concerts. Concerts in remote communities were an important part of the festival, which also included a two day conference exploring the relationship between the sound and visual worlds.
Two of the three prestigious Work of the Year awards were ethereally inspired: Ross Edwards and Fred Watson for Symphony No. 4 ‘Star Chant' won the vocal/choral award; and Stuart Greenbaum took out the orchestral award for 90 Minutes Circling the Earth, a work inspired by observations made by astronauts from various countries, on how the Earth looks from outer space.
The award for Instrumental Work of the Year went to jazz pianist and composer Mark Isaacs for Walk a Golden Mile, a work inspired by and recorded in another star-filled place – Hollywood!
Hosted by Australia's favourite ‘Mother of Ceremonies' Julia Lester, presenter of Classic Drive on ABC Classic FM – the 2008 Awards also featured performances by Mark Isaacs, The Song Company and Windstrokes William Barton, Claire Edwardes, Iain Grandage and Mel Robinson. Eleven national and various state awards were presented by industry luminaries such as CEO of Sydney Opera House, Richard Evans, Prof. Emeritus Roger Covell, Kathy Keele and James Strong of the Australia Council, distinguished composer Barry Conyngham, President of SIMA Peter Rechniewski as well as music entrepreneur and winner of the 2007 Distinguished Services to Australian Music award, Belinda Webster.
< back