Benefactor’s generous grant for major ANU music performance prize

A benefactor who loves live music has donated funds to help the ANU School of Music celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.
 
Christine Roach has given a generous donation to the inaugural Whitworth Roach Classical Music Performance Competition, applications for which open today.
 
Head of the School of Music, Professor Peter Tregear, says the school deeply appreciates Ms Roach’s gift, which “celebrates the centrality of performance excellence at the heart of the school’s educational mission.
 
“But it also, and just as significantly, encourages students from across the University to engage in the performing life of the School,” he said.
 
“This gift is a compliment to the School and complements its educational outreach program as we also have a broader mission in taking art to the wider community.”
 
There is $20,000 in prize money, including $10,000 for the winner, making it arguably one of the richest prizes in performance at an Australian university.
 
Instrumentalists or vocalists will perform a programme of classical music, typically composed between 1615 and 1915, with or without a keyboard accompaniment.
 
Applicants must be enrolled full-time at the ANU in an undergraduate or postgraduate program, and can be domestic and international students studying any discipline.
 
Students must be available in September to perform the work, which culminates in the final performances in the Llewellyn Hall on 19 September, the weekend of the School’s 50th anniversary celebrations. 
 
“As reflects the interests and loves of Ms Roach, the prize supports and celebrates the repertoire of Western classical art music in particular.
 
“It will without doubt strengthen the School’s profile in this field, as well as complement the School’s ongoing strengths in Jazz and contemporary music performance.”
 
For more details about the prize, see music.anu.edu.au/50th/whitworthroach