Opera about ancient king Gilgamesh crowned winner at the 2025 Art Music Awards
New Australian opera, Gilgamesh, has taken out Work of the Year and Performance of the Year at the 2025 Art Music Awards. (Opera Australia: Daniel Boud)
One of Australia's newest operas, Gilgamesh, has been crowned the biggest winner of the 2025 Art Music Awards in a ceremony held in Sydney on 21 August.
Other winners include former ABC Classic presenter and producer Stephen Adams, jazz outfit Koi Kingdom featuring saxophonist Cheryl Durongpisitkul, and performers including Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, the Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring.
The awards recognise the achievements of composers and performers of contemporary classical music, jazz, improvisation, electronic sound arts and experimental practices.
Based on an ancient Sumerian epic, Gilgamesh tells the story of a tyrant king who learns the meaning of wisdom through friendship, love and loss during the course of the opera.
Australian opera Gilgamesh was premiered in 2024 by Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, the Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring. (Sydney Chamber Opera/Opera Australia: Daniel Boud)
Premiered in 2024, it is the first time the epic of Gilgamesh has been performed as an English language opera, with text written by well-known librettist Louis Garrick.
Gilgamesh's composer, Jack Symonds, received two awards: Work of the Year: Dramatic for Gilgamesh, and the NSW State Luminary Award for his outstanding contributions to contemporary Australian opera.
Gilgamesh also earned Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, the Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring the award for Performance of the Year: Notated Composition.
Former ABC Classic producer Stephen Adams, long-time curator of Australian music for the network, has been recognised with a National Luminary Award for his outstanding contribution and dedication to Australian music.
Women composers continue to make a strong impact in the Australian art community.
Jazz composer and saxophonist Cheryl Durongpisitkul won Work of the Year: Jazz as part of the trio Koi Kingdom. (Supplied: AMC/APRA AMCOS)
Anne Cawrse, Cathy Milliken and Kate Milligan won Work of the Year awards for Choral Composition, Chamber Music and Electroacoustic/Sound Art respectively.
Melbourne-based Jazz musician Cheryl Durongpisitkul was part of the award-winning trio Koi Kingdom for Work of the Year: Jazz.
Chloe Kim's composition, titled Music for Six Double Bassists, won Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music category.
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.
Rose and Taylor have frequently collaborated on innovative projects including Great Fences of Australia, which maps the acoustic qualities of 35,000 kilometres of fence lines across the Australian outback.
The ceremony, organised by the Australian Music Centre and APRA AMCOS, was held at Sydney's City Recital Hall. ABC Classic Drive presenter Vanessa Hughes hosted with guest presenters Nardi Simpson and Hamed Sadeghi, and music curation by Sia Ahmad.
List of winners and Finalists
Work of the Year: Choral
- Winner: Anne Cawrse: All Flesh Is Fire, text by Kate Llewellyn — performers: Adelaide Chamber Singers
- Damian Barbeler: Charlotte, text by Judith Nangala Crispin — performers: Choir of King's College Cambridge
- Kevin March: Electric Cathedral, text by Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher — performers: The Consort of Melbourne
- Harry Sdraulig: Evening Star, text by Edgar Allan Poe — performers: Sydney Chamber Choir
Work of the Year: Dramatic
- Winner: Jack Symonds: Gilgamesh, text by Louis Garrick — performers: Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring
- Fiona Hill: A Library of Extraordinary Things — performers: Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year Dancers, choreographer Miranda Wheen
- Aija Draguns: In Cosmic Utero, text by Bianca Watkins — performers: Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Aija Draguns, conductor
- Evan J Lawson: Labyrinth, text by Daniel Szesiong Todd — performers: Forest Collective
Work of the Year: Jazz
- Winner: Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Stephen Hornby and Marcos Villalta: Koi Kingdom — performer: Koi Kingdom
- Claire Cross: Sleep Cycle — performers: Claire Cross, Reuben Lewis, Merinda Dias-Jayasinha and Kyrie Anderson
- Paul Grabowsky: The Rhythms Of Autumn Leaves — performer: Monash Art Ensemble — publisher: Origin Music Publishing.
- Amy Dowd and Michael Power: Tooni — performers: Amy Dowd, Mick Power, Ben Yarram, Isadora Lauritz, Emma Volard and the Australian Art Orchestra
Work of the Year: Large Ensemble
- Winner: Jakub Jankowski: Ritornello — performers: Australian Chamber Orchestra
- Nicholas Vines: A Mega Masquerade — performers: Australian Youth Orchestra Momentum Ensemble
- Olivia Davies: Hyphae — performers: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Dmitry Matvienko
- Elizabeth Younan: Nineteen Seventy-Three — performers: Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Work of the Year: Chamber Music
- Winner: Cathy Milliken: In Speak — performers: Arditti Quartet
- Helen Svoboda: Headwater — performers: Helen Svoboda, Selma Savolainen, Jacques Emery and Tilman Robinson
- Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope: nyilamum song cycles — performers: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Australian String Quartet — publisher: Wise Music
- Michael Kieran Harvey: War Sonatas — poet and narrator: Dr Arjun Von Caemmerer — performer: Michael Kieran Harvey
Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art
- Winner: Kate Milligan: Tactus — performer: Jonty Coy
- Gabriella Smart: Parasymbiosis — performers: Gabriella Smart, Kasper Toeplitz and Didier Casamitjana
- Aviva Endean: The Breath Becomes The Wind — performers: Aviva Endean and Pat Telfer
- Sophie Rose: To Echoes and Lines — performers: Judith Dodsworth
Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music
- Winner: Max Alduca, Jacques Emery, Brett Hirst, Chloe Kim, Oscar Neyland, Helen Svoboda and Jonathan Zwartz: Music For Six Double Bassists — composed by Chloe Kim
- Tom Avgenicos, Delay 45 and Ensemble Apex: Ghosts Between Streams — composed by Tom Avgenicos
- Hamed Sadeghi and Eishan Ensemble: By The Mountain — composed by Hamed Sadeghi
- Xani: Endurance — composed by Xani Kolac
Performance of the Year: Notated Composition
- Winner: Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring: Gilgamesh — composed by Jack Symonds, text by Louis Garrick
- Adelaide Chamber Singers: All Flesh Is Fire — composed by Anne Cawrse, text by Kate Llewellyn
- Dr Lou Bennett AM and the Australian String Quartet: nyilamum song cycles — composed by Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope — published by Wise Music
- West Australian Opera: Wundig wer Wilura — composed by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse — published by Perfect Pitch Publishing
Excellence Awards
Three Excellence Awards were given out to projects that illuminate the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and artistic practice in contemporary Australian art music.
Musica Viva Australia received this year's Award for Excellence in Music Education for its Accessible Music Education Program.
Finalists:
- Erica Rasmussen for Crashendo — Leading Note
- Speak Percussion for Bespoke Artists Program
- Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for TSO Schools Runouts
Leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART, won the Award for Excellence in a Regional Area for Tjaabi: Flood Country — 2024 Regional Tour.
Finalists:
- Arafura Music Collective for Kaleidoscope: The Music of LGBTIQA+ Composers
- Ekstasis Ensemble for Limitless
- Music in the Regions for providing high quality classical music to audiences across regional New South Wales
Multi-award winner Aviva Endean took out the Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice for her work: The Breath Becomes The Wind.
Finalists:
- Dale Gorfinkel for OutHear
- Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung and Sally Ann McIntyre in collaboration with Mindy Meng Wang and Kaylie Melville for The Ninth Tone
- the music box project for Cut Paste Play 2024
Luminary Awards
The annual Luminary Awards are presented to those who have made a sustained impact on musical communities through their leadership, artistic practice and the championing of Australian repertoire.
Former ABC Classic curator of Australian music Stephen Adams was recognised with the Luminary Award: National Individual for his outstanding contribution and dedication to Australian music as a broadcaster, producer, composer and advocate.
Decibel New Music received the Luminary Award: National Organisation for its program of concerts, releases, tours and publications.
The following Luminary Awards were also presented to individuals and organisations who have made significant contributions to the music community in their local state or territory.
- Luminescence Chamber Singers (ACT) for their annual program in ACT and beyond
- Jack Symonds (NSW) for outstanding contributions to contemporary Australian opera
- Adelaide Chamber Singers (SA) for sustained contribution to commissioning and artistic excellence
- Nat Bartsch (VIC) for advocacy for neurodiversity in music
- Stevie McEntee (TAS) for programming of Clarence Jazz Festival and as artistic director/founding member of Lutruwita Art Orchestra
- Muses Trio (QLD) for Muses Inc.
- Perth International Jazz Festival (WA) for growth of the Perth International Jazz Festival 2020 — 2024