The Philip Neill Memorial Prize is an annual prize administered by the University of Otago for excellence in original composition. [1] The award is open to all past and present students of a university in New Zealand, except previous winners who are excluded for a period of five years.
It was established in 1943 in memory of Philip Foster Neill, a medical student at the University of Otago who died during the polio outbreak of 1943. In the first year of the prize, 1944, the topic was for a prelude (or fantasia) and fugue for either piano or organ. Douglas Lilburn was publicly awarded the first prize of £25 on 25 June 1944, with Harry Luscombe of Auckland the runner-up. [2] It is the longest continuously running award of its kind in New Zealand.
The prize is determined each year with a set task with different parameters each year, usually relating to duration and instrumentation, which are announced early in the year, with a deadline for submission at the beginning of July. The prize is not always awarded.
Douglas Gordon Lilburn was a New Zealand composer.
John Stanley Body was a New Zealand composer, ethnomusicologist, photographer, teacher, and arts producer. As a composer, his work comprised concert music, music theatre, electronic music, music for film and dance, and audio-visual gallery installations. A deep and long-standing interest in the music of non-Western cultures – particularly South-East Asian – influenced much of his composing work, particularly his technique of transcribing field recordings. As an organiser of musical events and projects, Body had a significant impact on the promotion of Asian music in New Zealand, as well as the promotion of New Zealand music within the country and abroad.
Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead is a New Zealand composer. She is of Māori Ngāi Te Rangi descent. Her Māori heritage has been an important influence on her composing.
Nigel Keay is a New Zealand composer. He has been a freelance musician since 1983 working as a composer, violist, and violin teacher. Nigel Keay has held the following composer residencies: Mozart Fellowship, University of Otago 1986 and 1987, Nelson School of Music 1988 and 89, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 1995.
Christopher Marshall is a New Zealand classical music composer who resides in Orlando, Florida, United States.
David Blair Hamilton is a New Zealand composer and teacher.
Edwin James Nairn Carr was a composer of classical music from New Zealand.
Olli Mustonen is a Finnish pianist, conductor, and composer.
Ernest Walker was an Indian-born English composer and writer on music, as well as a pianist, organist and teacher.
Philip Lasser is an American composer, pianist, and music theorist. He is a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School in New York City.
Dorothy Whitson Freed was a New Zealand author, composer, and music historian. She made significant contributions to the field of music librarians, and authored several books and articles regarding musical information and resources in New Zealand.
Eve de Castro-Robinson is a New Zealand composer, professor and graphic designer. Her compositions include orchestral, vocal, chamber and electroacoustic works. She studied at the University of Auckland, where in 1991 she became the first person to receive a DMus from the University. She is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Auckland.
Gillian Margaret Bibby was a New Zealand composer, pianist, writer and teacher.
Jeroen Speak is a New Zealand-born British composer.
Kenneth Young is a composer, conductor, radio presenter and lecturer in composition, conducting and orchestration at the New Zealand School of Music, Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington. As a composer, Young has had works commissioned by New Zealand and Australian orchestras and arts organisations including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra New Zealand International Arts Festival and Chamber Music New Zealand. He works as a freelance composer and is fully represented by SOUNZ: The Centre for New Zealand Music. In 1976, Young became the principal tuba for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and first conducted the orchestra in 1985 becoming Conductor in Residence in 1993. In 2001, he resigned from the orchestra to become a full-time conductor, composer and recording artist for orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, as well as engagements in Japan and the United Kingdom. He is well known for his interpretation of Romantic, 20th Century, New Zealand and Australian orchestral repertoire and in 2012 conducted both the winning album, Angel at Ahipara and finalist album, Releasing the Angel, for Best Classical Album at the New Zealand Music Awards. Young has been recorded by EMI, Atoll Records, Continuum, Trust Records, ABC Classics and Naxos and is a frequent presenter on RESOUND, Radio New Zealand Concert introducing and contextualising work from the RNZ archives. In 2004 was awarded the Lilburn Trust Citation in Recognition of Outstanding Services to New Zealand Music.
Charles Clement Fussell is an American composer and conductor of contemporary classical music. He has composed six symphonies and three operas. His symphony Wilde for solo baritone and orchestra, based on the life of Oscar Wilde and premiered by the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Sanford Sylvan in 1990, was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1992.
Dylan Lardelli is a New Zealand composer and guitarist. He is of Māori Ngāti Porou and Ngāi Tūhoe descent.
Leonie Joyce Holmes is a New Zealand composer and lecturer at the University of Auckland with an interest in music education.
Nathaniel Otley is a New Zealand composer, violinist and conductor.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)