This year we publicised the awards to all conservatoria in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and ACT, inviting applications for assistance from our foundation. Applications closed on October 17 and our auditions took place on November 23. Each of the six finalists had to perform a thirty-minute program for an independent artistic assessment panel chaired by Professor Michael Brimer, together with Ms Natalia Sheludiakova and Dr Christine Logan. We are pleased to announce three awards each in the amount of six thousand dollars. L to R: Pavle Cajic, Sabina Im and Alex Raineri Pavle Cajic is twenty, currently studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He is planning a career as a solo/chamber pianist and composer. He plans on applying the award to assist in covering costs for overseas study in Germany and Europe, and for international com petition entry fees. Sabina Im is twenty-four, has been studying in Sydney and recently in London. She is planning her career as a solo performer, chamber musician  and accompanist. She plans on using her award to further her studies in London. Alex Raineri is twenty one, studying in Brisbane and in Melbourne. His career plans include solo and chamber music, specialising in contemporary music….

Finsterer, Dean, Hindson and Ford head the 2014 APRA AMCOS nominations.

The other night my wife and I decided to abandon the children and go out. As there was no concert or play of interest to us in the entire Sydney basin, I suggested we go on a restaurant crawl instead. We drove to Balmain and stopped in at a swank Thai restaurant and had delicious duck pancakes, salt and pepper squid and prawns, then drove down to Glebe to an upmarket diner where we had lamb cutlets with a tasty salsa of mint, jalapenos, coriander and chilli and shared a pork rack in a red wine sauce. As we sat nursing our delightfully deep glasses of Argentinian malbec, I pondered on variety, the spice of life, and how we need more of it in concerts, many of which have acquired a stodgy meat and two veg flavour.  Alex Ross wrote a wonderful article recently in The New Yorker on two books that investigated the development of the modern concert. In After the Golden Age, Kenneth Hamilton writes that Franz Liszt used to bring an urn on to the stage containing slips of paper the audience had written with the titles of pieces upon which he would improvise. “On turning out…

New survey finds improvising jazz musicians are the most creative of all.

Colorado Symphony gets into bed with cannabis companies in hopes of hitting new highs.

Heldentenor and iconic director fly the flag at this year’s International Opera Awards.

Nominations for the 2014 Art Music Awards are now open.

Handa Opera on the Harbour, the Melbourne Ring and Stuart Skelton all make this year’s nominations.

Australian Chamber Orchestra and Dawn Upshaw head the impressive list of this years winners.