Art Music Awards Winners 2025 Announced
Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees in the 2025 Art Music Awards!
Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the winners were announced this week in a glittering ceremony at Sydney’s City recital Hall.
The Art Music Awards is an annual celebration of the national art music community, recognising excellence among creators, performers and community leaders in contemporary classical, jazz, experimental music and sound art.
Sydney-based composer, Jack Symonds, was the night’s biggest winner receiving two awards, one in the category Work of the Year: Dramatic, for his bold operatic re-telling of the epic poem, Gilgamesh, with text by Louis Garrick, and the other being the NSW State Luminary Award for his outstanding contributions to contemporary Australian opera. Gilgamesh also earned Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring the award for Performance of the Year: Notated Composition.
Women composers were well represented winning four of the six Work of the Year categories. They were Anne Cawrse for All Flesh is Fire in the Work of the Year: Choral category with text by Kate Llewellyn and performed by the Adelaide Chamber Singers. Work of the Year: Chamber Music was awarded to Cathy Milliken for her work In Speak, performed by Arditti Quartet for their 50th jubilee celebrations, and Kate Milligan’s audio-visual work Tactus, performed by Jonty Coy, took out the award for Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art, her third Art Music Award to date.
Melbourne-based jazz visionaries, Koi Kingdom, were awarded Work of the Year: Jazz for their self-titled work composed and performed by members Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Stephen Hornby and Marcos Villalta, and the final Work of the Year: Large Ensemble was presented to Jakub Jankowski for Ritornello, dedicated to the 20th-century Soviet film director, Sergei Parajanov, and performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
In the Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music category, Max Alduca, Jacques Emery, Brett Hirst, Chloe Kim, Oscar Neyland, Helen Svoboda and Jonathan Zwartz took out the award for their performance highlighting multiple aspects of the double bass, Music For Six Double Bassists, composed by Chloe Kim.
Three Excellence Awards were awarded to projects that illuminate the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and artistic practice in contemporary Australian art music. This year’s Award for Excellence in Music Education went to Musica Viva Australia for its Accessible Music Education Program. Leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART, won the Award for Excellence in a Regional Area for Tjaabi: Flood Country – 2024 Regional Tour, and multi-award winner Aviva Endean took out the Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice for The Breath Becomes The Wind.
Two of this year’s National Luminary Awards were awarded on the night, honouring individuals and organisations who, through sustained contribution, have impacted the community through visionary leadership, high-level artistic practice and championing the Australian repertoire. The recipients were Stephen Adams for his outstanding contribution and dedication to Australian music as a broadcaster, producer, composer and advocate, and Decibel New Music for its program of concerts, releases, tours and publications. The State and Territory Luminary Award recipients were announced before the ceremony and presented with their awards at the event.
Art music visionaries, Jon Rose and Hollis Taylor, were honoured with the prestigious Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music for their boundary-pushing work and sonic exploration, with Rose accepting the award on the pair’s behalf.
The 2025 Art Music Awards were hosted by Vanessa Hughes, with guest presenters Nardi Simpson and Hamed Sadeghi. Guests were treated to performances by an eclectic lineup of artists, including four-piece supergroup Asteroid Ekosystem; drummer and electronic musician Laurence Pike with VOX Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; percussionist Claire Edwardes in collaboration with turntablist Martin Ng; the premiere of Indigenous experimental sound ensemble grndwater featuring amby downs, JWPaton, sallvage and Sonya Holowell; and pianist Alex Raineri, curated by acclaimed artist, Sia Ahmad.
For further information, visit apraamcos.com.au/2025artmusicawards.
