Youth Music Awards 2026 Performance Results 26 June 2026
1st Prize $1,000 - Edwin Vo 16yrs Clarinet
2nd Prize $800 - Gabrielle Thai 15yrs Violin
3rd Prize $600 - Emmaline Xu 17yrs Trombone
Youngest Finalist $100 - Voucher Alena Dunphy 13yrs Voice
Promising Talent $100 - Voucher Lucy Hallam 16yrs French Horn
Folk Festival Award + $100 - Alexander Wu 16yrs Alto Saxophone
Music Theatre $500 - Allee Reynolds 16yrs Voice
People's Choice Trophy, Gift - Gabrielle Thai 15yrs Violin
HC - Anneke Chappelow 18yrs Voice
HC - Oliver Korbel 13 Alto Saxophone
HC - Jasmine Murray 14 Voice
HC - Melody Jia Ai Tan 14 Piano
HC - Caitlin Wolf 16 Flute
Performance Auditions & Finals: Dr Carrigan AM
Dr Jeanell Carrigan AM will be adjudicating the Performance section this evening. Jeanell is an Associate Professor in Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, where she holds a Doctor of Creative Arts specialising in Australian post-1970 solo piano repertoire. A prolific researcher and author, her publications include
“Post-1970 Australian Piano Music”, “Australian Piano Music of the Last Twenty-Five Years”, “Australian Piano Music 1850-1950: A Guide to the Composers and Repertoire”, and recently, “A National Treasure: The Life and Achievements of Larry Sitsky” published in 2024. She has also published over one hundred volumes of piano and chamber music by Australian composers through Wirripang, and in February 2026, she released her thirty-seventh compact disc recording of Australian solo piano and chamber music.
Performance Auditions: Diana Springford
Diana is a clarinettist whose career spans professional performance, educational leadership and academic teaching. A core member of Ensemble Offspring for 15 years, she worked with leading Australian and international musicians, and contributed to the commissioning and performance of new music across contemporary, classical, chamber and musical theatre repertoire. She has also
recorded widely for albums, film soundtracks and commercials. Diana has also lectured in philosophy, aesthetics and music pedagogy at the Sydney Conservatorium, the University of Sydney, and the University of Wollongong. Since 2018, she has served as Director of Music at Emanuel School in Sydney, leading a diverse department and overseeing curriculum and co-curricular programs across the whole school. Throughout all her work, Diana is motivated by projects that bring people together to create music that is distinctive, meaningful and reflective of shared values.
Youth Music Awards 2026 Composition Results 26 June 2026
The Banksia Award is for ages 13 to 18 years - The theme wss "City Life"
1st Prize $700 - Seraphim Haryjanto 17yrs "Cat in Chroma"
2nd Prize $500 - Lucy Hallam 16yrs "City Life"
3rd Prize $300 - Oliver Robertson 14yrs "Air Of The City"
Singer Songwriter $200 - Erin Mirigliani 15yrs "City Life"
Promising Talent $100 Voucher - Sarah Sharples 18yrs "The Bright Side"
Folk Festival Award + $100 - Gabrielle Thai 15yrs "Day In the Life of A City Busker"
Finalist - Nathanael Clapham 15yrs "Just your average city"
Finalist - Caillan Humphreys 17yrs "Pilot"
Finalist - Melody Jia Ai Tan 14yrs "City Life"
The Waratah Award is for ages 19 to 21 years - The theme was "Landscapes"
​1st Prize $1,000 - Edmund Huang 18yrs "Bei Variations"
2nd Prize $700 - Tayla Buttaro Curtis 19yrs "Hydrology"
3rd Prize $400 - Orin Kim Narushima 19yrs "Hanging Gardens"
Finalist Alex Putra 19yrs "Under a Tuscan Sky"
Finalist Alexander Wu 16yrs "Mirage​"
The Banksia Award Adjudicator: Andrew Ford
Andrew Ford is a composer, writer and broadcaster whose music has won awards including the Paul Lowin Prize for the song cycle, Learning to Howl, a Green Room Award for the opera, Rembrandt’s Wife and the Albert H Maggs Prize for the large ensemble piece, Rauha. His music has been programmed by all the major Australian orchestras and festivals, and performed around the world by the likes of the London Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Shanghai, New Zealand, Australian, Flinders and Brodsky quartets, the Song Company, Luminescence Chamber Singers and Flanders Boys Choir; by pianists Peter Donohoe, Lisa Moore and Ian Munro, and singers as various as Lyndon Terracini, Yvonne Kenny, Katie Noonan, Iva Bittová, Jane Sheldon, Jess Hitchcock and Robyn Archer. Since 2020, his Red Dirt Hymns have been widely taken up by singers and choirs.
Ford has been composer-in-residence for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In 2014 he was Poynter Fellow and visiting composer at Yale University, in 2015 visiting lecturer at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and in 2018 HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University.
Besides his work as a composer, Ford has written widely on all manner of music and published eleven books, most recently The Shortest History of Music (Black Inc., July 2024). He has written, presented and co-produced five radio series for the ABC and, since 1995, presented The Music Show each weekend on ABC Radio National. Ford’s work as writer and broadcaster was recognised in 1998 with the Geraldine Pascall Prize for critical writing, and in 2021 a Sidney Myer Facilitator’s Prize.
He was awarded an OAM in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to music composition and as an author and radio broadcaster.
In this conversation, Andrew reflects on discovering composition as a teenager and how an encounter with Michael Tippett shaped his artistic outlook. He discusses balancing technique with intuition, the magic of hearing a work for the first time, and accepting that self-criticism and the realities of needing to finish a work are part of the creative process...
The Waratah Award Adjudicator: Wendy Hiscocks
Wendy Hiscocks is an Australian-born composer-pianist now based in the UK whose music has been commissioned and performed by major international artists such as Piers Lane and Roy Howat (piano), Rachel Nicholls and Elizabeth Connell (soprano), Madeleine Mitchell and Philippa Mo (violin), Michael Collins (clarinet), Sydney Chamber Choir, and the Schubert
Ensemble (London). Festivals programming her works include the Amadeus (Geneva), the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and the Kusatsu International Summer Festival (Japan),
as well as broadcasts on Radio Suisse Romande, Radio France, ABC Radio and TV, BBC Radio 3, and collaborations with the British Film Institute as composer and silent film pianist.
As a pianist, Wendy has performed at venues ranging from London’s Purcell Room to the Kusatsu International Summer Academy and Festival in Japan. She has recorded duo and duet works by Chabrier with Roy Howat for Edition Stil, and appears as pianist in a CD of herchamber music for the Symposium label. Her most recent recordings for Naxos feature world premiere recordings of songs by Arthur Benjamin and Edgar Bainton accompanying Susan Bickley (mezzo) and Christopher Gillett (tenor), and the songs of Grace Williams with the Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams.
​She is currently Artistic Director of Celebrating Australian Music (CAM), with Arthur Benjamin forming the focus of her doctorate, an ABC radio documentary, and a biography due for release at the Beaumaris Festival in 2027 published by Lyrita Nimbus Arts.
The Legends of Swing 22nd February 2026
The 2026 concert season commenced on 22 February with “The Legends of Swing,” a vibrant celebration of classic jazz and crooning featuring acclaimed vocalist Charlie Chech and the Clive Lendich Trio.
Sydney-based Charlie, widely recognised as Australia’s “Best Male Vocal Performer” following his win at the 22nd ACE Awards - one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious honour - delivered a charismatic performance paying tribute to the golden era of swing. The program honoured iconic artists including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, and Ella Fitzgerald, while also acknowledging contemporary crooners such as Michael Bublé.
Backed by the accomplished Clive Lendich Trio, Charlie brought warmth and polish to the stage, setting an uplifting tone for the year ahead. One audience member reflected the general sentiment, describing the concert as “a wonderful start to the year.”
Charlie, who previously shared the stage with Grammy Award-winning superstar Michael Bublé during his 2020 Australian tour, continues his mission to keep the spirit of these legendary performers alive for new generations.
​“Legends of Swing” sold out within 2 days of single tickets going on sale! For the first time ever, Sutherland Music Club added a second show at 11am in addition to the 2pm concert.
