Applications for the 2024 Art Music Fund are open

Apply for a grant of $7,500 - nine for Australian composers, two for Aotearoa New Zealand.

Since 2016, the grants have funded the composition and creation of new works.

To apply, please follow the AU or NZ guidelines. Applications close on 13 February.

Australian and New Zealand art music composers are invited to apply for a $7,500 (AUD) Art Music Fund grant to help them make new musical works a reality. Eleven grants will be allocated to nine Australian and two New Zealand composers.

The Art Music Fund, now in its ninth funding round, is an initiative of APRA AMCOS, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.

The per recipient funding of $7,500 is available for the creation of commissioned work that is innovative, displays professional compositional craft and represents a benchmark of excellence in its field. The intention is to support composers to create works with a long artistic and performance life - whether it is presented in a concert hall, via live stream, filmed, as a recording, set to choreography or other formats.

Applications close 13 February 2024 at 5:00pm AEDT.

Recent Art Music Fund-supported premieres include Anne Boyd AM's The Olive Pink Opera in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, Salina Fisher's Papatūānuku with Jerome Kavanagh and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Queensland composer Corinna Bonshek's the space between us…has an international premiere in Portugal in 2024.

The fund has supported a wide range of work from Dylan Lardelli’s evocative Visiting Blue, Maree Sheehan’s The Song(s) of Solomon Project and Celeste Oram’s Yunge Eylands Varpcast Netwerkið a live radio play created with Germany’s Ensemble Adapter, to name but a few.

"SOUNZ is really delighted to be partnering with APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre to support this wonderful opportunity for composers. The Art Music Fund is an exciting initiative that enables our composers to embark on a new project and performance(s). We are looking forward to hearing the works that this grant will support,” said Diana Marsh, Chief Executive, SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with APRA AMCOS and SOUNZ again to support the development of 11 new works by our art music creators. Creation, support and connection to artists and their works is a fundamental part of the Art Music Fund and the essence of what we do. We look forward to being inspired by this new music," said Catherine Haridy, CEO, Australian Music Centre.

“The ninth round of the Art Music Fund continues APRA AMCOS' investment into the wildly creative storytellers of Australia and New Zealand's art music community. We are proud to be supporting, once again with our partners the Australian Music Centre and the SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, the composers, improvisers, and sound artists who bravely create commentary on our current world, interrogate our past and craft their vision for our potential futures," said Cameron Lam, Art Music Lead, APRA AMCOS.

APRA AMCOS created the Art Music Fund, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and now SOUNZ, in recognition of the limited opportunities for art music composers to have new works performed. We strongly encourage support of these partner organisations, who champion the work of art music composers, by becoming either an AMC Financial Member or a Friend of SOUNZ.