Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Brenda Gifford  

The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers House Trust has announced the three Australian artists awarded Prelude residencies for 2022. Anne Cawrse, Brenda Gifford and Anna Laverty will be provided with a year's haven to further develop their professional practice. Yuin composer from Wreck Bay, NSW, Brenda Gifford will be the resident at the Peggy Glanville-Hicks House in Paddington, Sydney; SA composer Anne Cawrse will be based in her home state of South Australia at the North Adelaide Baptist Church, and songwriter, producer & engineer Anna Laverty will be resident at the Gallop House in Perth.

The Prelude program is built on the observation expressed by Peggy Glanville-Hicks herself in 1958: 'It is apparent that leisure and silence are absolute prerequisites for composers if they are to engage fully the many forms of awareness involved in creative activity', she said. She bequeathed her terrace home in Paddington as a haven for composers and, since 1994, it has housed 27 different Australian artists for long-term residencies. Its success enabled the residency program to expand in 2016, becoming a national network of year-long Prelude residencies for Australian composers, housed in historic buildings in NSW, SA and WA. The successful applicants are provided with sole occupancy of the houses as well as a modest stipend to cover living costs and travel.

Prelude is open to Australian composers in all musical genres and practices. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Australia Council for the Arts, APRA AMCOS, Create NSW, the National Trust of SA and the National Trust of WA.

> More information about the program and current and past residents (Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer Trust)