Unitec lecturer selected for inaugural APRA Art Music Fund

7 June, 2016
PRESS RELEASE

Performing and Screen Arts / Creative Industries / Unitec Institute of Technology

Unitec lecturer sole NZ composer selected for inaugural APRA Art Music Fund

Unitec music lecturer Samuel Holloway is the only New Zealander among twelve Australasian composers who have been awarded grants worth a total of $100,000 in the inaugural Art Music Fund, presented by APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association), which represents over 87,000 New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers.

The successful applicants include established and emerging composers, and their proposed works traverse chamber music, electronics, non-Western music and jazz. Samuel will work with the NZTrio, one of New Zealand’s foremost chamber ensembles, on a substantial work for a piano trio to be premiered in 2017.

The Art Music Fund was established to provide much-needed support for classical, jazz and experimental composers to both compose and perform their works. “We were thrilled to receive more than 100 applications for the first Art Music Fund,” said Nigel Westlake, composer, APRA Writer Board Member and, until recently, Chair of the Australian Music Centre.

Samuel Holloway currently holds the position of Programme Leader within Performing and Screen Arts, Creative Industries at Unitec in Auckland, and also maintains an independent compositional practice. “I’m immensely grateful to APRA for this vote of confidence in my work,” says Samuel.

Samuel was the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago in 2013, and New Zealand's sole representative at the 2014 Festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Poland. In September 2016 he will take up a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Umbria, Italy. His work has been performed by prominent artists and ensembles including Klangforum Wien, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Miyata-Yoshimura-Suzuki Trio (Tokyo) and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Samuel has recently undertaken collaborative projects at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (with Kate Newby) and West, The Hague (with et al.). His work Upright Piano, created with et al., is held in the Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Head of Practice Pathways for Creative Industries at Unitec, Dr Vanessa Byrnes notes the immense prestige of this award. “This award is a substantial endorsement of the faith that APRA AMCOS has in Samuel’s talents, and his proven capacity to strive for innovation and excellence. Unitec congratulates Samuel on this fantastic endorsement.”

Here are details of the APRA Art Music Fund results: http://apraamcos.com.au/news/2016/may/art-music-fund-grant-recipients/

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