Applications Open For 2019 Paul Lowin Prizes
Applications for the 2019 Paul Lowin Prizes, now open, as announced by Perpetual and the Australian Music Centre. Entries should be lodged online by 5pm AEST on Sunday 30 June 2019.
The two prizes, The Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize 2019 of $25,000 and the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize 2019 of $15,000 are among Australia’s most significant prizes for music composition. The list of winning and highly commended works since the awarding of the first Prizes in 1991 tells a powerful story of the skill, craft and creativity of Australian composers of our own time. The Prizes are also a true testament to the potential of philanthropy to encourage new creative work.
The Orchestral Prize ($25,000) is awarded for a work for modern chamber or symphony orchestra of at least 30 players and 15 independent lines. The work may include instrumental or vocal soloists and/or choral, electronically produced or pre-recorded elements.
The Song Cycle Prize ($15,000) will be awarded to a work suitable for chamber performance, using no more than 1-8 independent vocal lines, accompanied by up to 10 instrumental players.
The Paul Lowin Prizes were last offered in 2016, with previous recipients including Lachlan Skipworth, Brett Dean, Nigel Westlake, Elliott Gyger, Mary Finsterer, Andrew Schultz, Rosalind Page, Nigel Butterley, Julian Yu, Georges Lentz, Brenton Broadstock, Martin Wesley-Smith, Raffæle Marcellino, Liza Lim and Andrew Ford.
Paul Lowin was born in 1893 in Czechoslovakia, and lived in Australia for two decades of his life from 1939 onwards. He died in Vienna in 1961, leaving a hand-written will indicating his wish to establish a competition for works by living Australian composers. Because of the lack of clarity in the will, it took a further thirty years of effort by the executors of his estate to honour this wish. The competition was initially held every three years between 1991-97, and since then every 2-3 years.
The Paul Lowin Prizes are managed by Perpetual and presented in collaboration with the Australian Music Centre.
Click here for more information and to apply.
