Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Paul Stanhope  
© Jason Catlett

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music has announced Associate Professor, composer Paul Stanhope as the winner of the 2021 David Harold Tribe Symphony Award.

The $12,000 award for a new symphonic composition of 20 minutes or longer was presented to Stanhope for his 2017 Trombone Concerto.

This year's judging panel included Professor Matthew Hindson AM, Deputy Head of School and Deputy Dean; Associate Dean (Education), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Professor Liza Lim, Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music, Professor in Composition, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and Professor Stuart Greenbaum, Head of Composition, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.

The judges were impressed with the calibre and variety of this year's entries, particularly in a period marked by significant challenges for the music community.

'Altogether, the submissions demonstrated a wide range of instrumentations and forms, from concertos to symphonies to works with choir and orchestra. There was a diversity of styles and approaches that reflect the diversity within the contemporary art music discipline', said the panel.

'The winning work was beautifully crafted, not just for the soloist but also within the entire orchestral context. It was well-paced and demonstrated a highly idiomatic while exploratory use of the soloist. This is a substantial work with a large emotional range. The result was fresh and exciting.'

The David Harold Tribe Awards were established to inspire ingenuity across the arts, with prizes awarded across fiction, poetry, philosophy, sculpture and symphony. The awards have been made possible by a generous donation from the late David Harold Tribe through the David Harold Tribe Charitable Foundation.

> Paul Stanhope - AMC profile. See also: news article on the University of Sydney website.