Entries Open For Paul Lowin Prizes 2025

Entries are open for the prestigious triennial Paul Lowin Orchestral and Song Cycle Prizes 2025.

The prizes, administered by Perpetual and the Australian Music Centre (AMC) are held triennially and are deemed to be one of the richest prizes in music composition in Australia. In celebration of the Australian Music Centre’s fiftieth anniversary year, the 2025 Prizes will offer an increased total prize pool of $47,500.

Entries close on Tuesday 10 June 2025, 5pm AEST.

The eponymous prizes were founded after Czechoslovakian migrant and businessman Paul Lowin left a handwritten will detailing his wish to establish a competition for works by living Australian composers. In celebration of the Australian Music Centre’s fiftieth anniversary year, the 2025 Prizes will offer an increased total prize pool of $47,500.

In 2025, the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize will award an Australian composer $30,000 for excellence in an orchestral work written within the last three years. The work must have been written for a modern chamber or symphony orchestra of at least 30 players and 15 independent lines, including those that feature instrumental or vocal soloists, choral elements, and/or electronically produced or pre-recorded elements.

The Song Cycle Prize will award an Australian composer $15,500 for excellence in a song cycle written within the last three years. Suitable for a chamber performance, the winning work will feature no more than eight independent vocal lines and may be accompanied by up to 10 instrumental players.

A highly commended award will also be presented or each prize category, each valued at $1,000.

The Paul Lowin Prizes were most recently presented in 2022, where major prizes were awarded to Elliott Gyger (Song Cycle Prize for Autobiochemistry), and Paul Dean (Orchestral Prize for Symphony No.1, Black Summer). Works by Cameron Lam, Brett Dean, Anne Cawrse, and Matthew Hindson were highly commended with over 100 entries received.

Composers, publishers, and members of the general public are invited to nominate eligible works for consideration. The full competition guidelines for the 2025 Paul Lowin Prizes can be found here.

Entries must be submitted online via: https://airtable.com/appqVmd5E0YdD9F4r/pagIT8sspmWvoQ75x/form