 | |
| Founded | 1968 |
|---|---|
| Founder | James Murdoch |
| Type | Cultural institution |
Area served | Australia |
Key people | Marshall McGuire (chair) |
| Website | www |
The Australian Music Centre (AMC), founded as Australia Music Centre in 1974 and known as Sounds Australian in the 1990s, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia. It operates mainly as a service organisation, and co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS. It also publishes Resonate Magazine.
After funds became available through the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia Music Centre came into existence as an association on 13 August 1974. Music advocate James Murdoch was appointed inaugural director. In 1975 it moved to premises at 80 George Street, Sydney (part of the historic Metcalfe Bond Stores building [1] ), and was accepted as a member organisation of both the International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC) and International Association of Music Libraries (IAML). [2]
On 27 February 1976, AMC was officially opened to the public, with the opening ceremony officiated by NSW Senator John Carrick. In September of that year, Peggy Glanville-Hicks was appointed consultant for Asian music. [2]
The centre created a library and information service, at which Martin Buzzacott later worked for some years. It started publishing a newsletter, AMC News, and managed the Australia Council / APRA parts-copying scheme. [2]
In 1981 the AMC had a period of dormancy, reopening to the public on 3 September 1982, after Joan Bona had been appointed administrator. [2]
In 1986 the official name was changed from Australia Music Centre to Australian Music Centre, and it moved into new premises on Smail St, Ultimo, in June of that year. A recording project was announced, with recording studios based in Melbourne. Richard Letts was appointed executive director in 1987, a role he held until mid-1993. The record label, Vox Australis, and a magazine, Sounds Australian, were established during this time, as were a series of annual music awards. [2]
At the end of 1989 the AMC changed its name to Sounds Australian, which was retained for around 10 years. [2] [3]
In 1993 the AMC established an online presence. In 2007 the AMC's print journal, Sounds Australian, was superseded by the online magazine Resonate, and on 31 March 2009 a new website was launched. [2]
In 2000, the AMC moved to The Arts Exchange in The Rocks, Sydney, next door to its original location in George Street. It remained there until 2013, when it moved to the APRA building in Mountain Street. Around this time much of the physical items were moved into storage off-site, as most of the material had been made available online. [2]
At the end of 2015, a new initiative was launched to support artist development, a series of programs under the name "AMPlify". This included special programs for Indigenous Australian composers, later replaced by a new program, Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers, in partnership with Moogahlin Performing Arts, ANU School of Music, Ensemble Offspring and the Royal Australian Navy Band, with funding support from APRA AMCOS, and in-kind support from EORA College of TAFE. [2]
AMC provides advocacy, representation, and publishing services as well as career support and professional development programmes. Initially focussed on contemporary classical music, its purview has expanded to experimental music, sound art, contemporary jazz, and improvisatory music. [4] It operates as a service organisation rather than a professional association. [5] As of 2020 AMC represented over 750 composers and sound artists. [2]
The AMC is the Australian national section of International Society for Contemporary Music [6] and the IAMIC. [7]
The Centre's collection includes a repository of Australian scores, recordings and teaching kits that numbered 13,000 items by 660 creators in 2017. [8]
The AMC was established in 1974 by its inaugural director, James Murdoch. For 32 years its CEO was John Davis, who left in 2021. [4] In May 2021, he was succeeded by Catherine Haridy, who had worked in A&R for Mushroom Records and Warner Music Australia and founded her own artist management company in 2006. [9]
Marshall McGuire was appointed chair of the board in 2021. [10]
The Australia Council for the Arts (from 2023 Creative Australia) has provided most of the AMC's funding. Cuts at different times (especially in 2012–3) has caused challenges, but funding has been assured from 2021 to 2024. [2]
AMC music awards were first held in 1988 under the banner Sounds Australian, [11] and in 2002, in collaboration with APRA, presented the annual Classical Music Awards. These both continued until 2009, and in 2011 the inaugural Art Music Awards took place. [2]
The AMC co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, which acknowledges excellence among Australian composers, performers and educators in the genres of contemporary classical music, jazz, improvisation, sound art and experimental music. [12]
The Australian Music Centre represents Australian composers, improvisers and sound artists. Some notable represented artists include:
Print publications by Australia Music Centre include:
APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in Australia and New Zealand. The two organisations work together to license public performances and administer performance, communication and reproduction rights on behalf of their members, who are creators of musical works, aiming to ensure fair payments to members and to defend their rights under the Australian Copyright Act (1968).
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008.
Peggy Winsome Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer and music critic.
The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a chamber music group founded in 1985 and based at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It delivers an artistic program of performances, workshops, commissions, digital content and education projects across Australia and abroad.
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Perth, Western Australia. Its principal concert venue is the Perth Concert Hall. WASO also gives concerts at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. As of March 2012, WASO has a roster of 79 full-time musicians and presents over 170 performances per annum throughout the state. The orchestra has an affiliated WASO Chorus.
Catherine Anne "Cat" Hope, is an Australian composer, musician and academic. She started her music and academic careers in Perth and relocated to Melbourne in 2017. Her opera, Speechless, was first performed in 2019 at the Perth Festival. At the Art Music Awards of 2020 she won Work of the Year: Dramatic for Speechless. Steve Dow of The Age described the opera, "fuelled by outrage over the imprisonment of asylum seeker children, which features growling and screaming to an unconventional score without musical notation." Hope has also won the Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music in 2011 for Decibel's 2009–2010 Annual Programs and in 2014 for her Drawn from Sound exhibition.
Nigel Westlake is an Australian composer, musician and conductor. As a composer for the screen, his film credits include the feature films Ali's Wedding, Paper Planes, Miss Potter, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution and The Nugget. He also composed the theme for SBS World News.
The APRA Music Awards in Australia are annual awards to celebrate excellence in contemporary music, which honour the skills of member composers, songwriters, and publishers who have achieved outstanding success in sales and airplay performance.
Andrew Ford is an English-born Australian composer, writer, and radio presenter, known for The Music Show on ABC Radio National.
Tony Gould is an Australian jazz musician, pianist, composer and educator.
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2012 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2012 was the 30th annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 28 May 2012 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Art Music Awards were introduced in 2011 to replace the Classical Music Awards and were distributed on 3 April at the Sydney Opera House. They are sponsored by APRA and the Australian Music Centre (AMC) to "recognise achievement in the composition, performance, education and presentation of Australian music". The Screen Music Awards were issued on 19 November by APRA and Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC), which "acknowledges excellence and innovation in the genre of screen composition".
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2013 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2013 was the 31st annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 17 June 2013 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The Australian Performing Right Association Awards of 2014 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2014 was the 32nd annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 23 June 2014 at the Brisbane City Hall, for the first time. The host for the ceremony was Brian Nankervis, adjudicator on SBS-TV's RocKwiz.
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2015 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2015 was the 33rd annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 24 March 2015 at the Carriageworks, Sydney. The host for the ceremony was Brian Nankervis, adjudicator on SBS-TV's RocKwiz.
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2016 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2016 was the 34th annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 5 April 2016 at the Carriageworks, Sydney. The host for the ceremony was Brian Nankervis, adjudicator on SBS-TV's RocKwiz.
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2017 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2017 was the 35th annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 3 April 2017 at the International Convention Centre Sydney. The host for the ceremony was Julia Zemiro, presenter on SBS-TV's RocKwiz.
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2018 are a series of related awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards of 2018 was the 36th annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwriting, composing and publishing. The ceremony was held on 10 April 2018 at the International Convention Centre Sydney. The host for the ceremony was Julia Zemiro.
The APRA Music Awards of 2019 are the 37th annual awards given in the series of awards together known as APRA Awards, given in 2019. The awards are given in a series of categories in three divisions and in separate ceremonies throughout the year: the APRA Music Awards, Art Music Awards and Screen Music Awards. They are given by the Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, known jointly as APRA AMCOS.
Paul Stanhope is an Australian composer, conductor and music educator, known for his choral and instrumental music.
Anne Cawrse is an Australian composer based in South Australia. As of 2022 she is on the composition staff at Elder Conservatorium of Music.
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