The Homophonic! Pride Prize Submissions

Judith Dodsworth performing "To Echoes and Lines" by 2024 Pride Prize winning composer Sophie Rose. Photo by Darren Gill.

The Homophonic! Pride Prize is a unique opportunity for LGBTQIA+ Australian Composers to work with amazing soloists to create a new work to be performed at Homophonic! as part of the Midsumma Festival.

Applications are now open for the 6th Annual Midsumma presents: The Homophonic! Pride Prize (closing on 23 September)!

The Prize is to write a new work for trailblazing keyboardist Jacob Abela, to premiere at Homophonic! as part of Midsumma Festival.

Portrait of Jacob Abela in a suit with slow exposure on red background

"I am thrilled and honoured to be part of this amazing program with Homophonic!, an organisation that represents a vital community of people who work at the nexus of new music and queer identity. 

In my solo practice, I like to take the aspects of classical piano that society and conservatoria have upheld and (dis)respectfully reconsider their value. International piano competitions with their Herculean demands, the hyper-masculine pursuit of mastering pieces that are labelled "the hardest ever written", Liszt- and Ligeti- and Xenakis-core. 

I devour the abstract - energy, magic, colour - and revel in banality. Peculiar autobiographies or gestures towards the infinite. Silliness and play, friendship or ego-death, the lived experience of pets and robots.

I can't wait to see who you are, what makes you tick, and what you want to create."

- Jacob Abela

(Image by Skye Sobejko)

All Australian composers who identify as LGBTQIA+ are encouraged to apply using The Homophonic! Prize Prize submission form.

There are no age limits, career stages, or entry fees.

The work:

7-10 minutes for Keyboardist Jacob Abela.

For: Any combination of: Grand piano, MIDI Keyboard (88 keys with aftertouch), Arturia Minifreak, Ondomo.
Preference for works including electronic elements.

The prize:

$2500 and performance at Homophonic! February 2025
3 workshopping sessions with Jacob Abela (in person or online)

Tickets to the premiere, (no flights or accommodation can be provided)
Live video and audio from the performance.

Dates:
Applications open: 2 September 2024
Applications close: 23 September 2024
Completed work delivered: 6 January 2025
Performance: 7 & 8 February 2025, Theatre Works, St Kilda

Panel:

Miranda Hill - Artistic Director, Homophonic!
Jacob Abela - Soloist
Niki Johnson - Percussionist
Solomon Frank - Composer

Jacob Abela is a dynamic pianist, keyboardist, and composer based in Naarm, known for his expertise across a wide range of musical styles. Whether navigating the complex demands of contemporary compositions, performing in the orchestra pits of mainstage musicals, or collaborating with theatre makers and opera companies, Jacob's artistic approach is as diverse as it is innovative. Described as performing “like electricity…as if possessed by a musical demon” (Theatre People), Jacob's artistry reflects a fearless pursuit of musical exploration and emotional depth.

Jacob’s solo work interrogates new virtuosities, queer performance practice, active listening, and narrative-driven programming. His solo performance Études for real and imaginary keyboard (2022) features increasingly extreme examples of electronic manipulations applied to various keyboards, allowing the audience to reimagine the territories that keyboard instruments inhabit in our cultural memory. Territories of Oblivion (2023), by contrast, is a hallucinatory recital of solo piano works which lead the listener into progressively varied and vast sonic landscapes, activated in imagination by solely acoustic phenomena.

As an ensemble musician, Jacob has worked as the keyboardist for contemporary ensemble Rubiks Collective since their inception in 2015 and has appeared as a guest performer with other leading ensembles including Speak Percussion and Ensemble Offspring. Recent collaborations include Get Cultured! (2023, 2024) with drag queen Olympia Bukkakis, The Crying Room: Exhumed (2024) by Marcus Ian McKenzie, and A Book of Hours (2023) with Kate Neal, Sal Cooper, and Rubiks Collective.

Jacob’s composition practise centres on externalising auditory imaginations, both as a repository of musical invention and an abstract conceptual framework. Jacob uses this psychological-to-musical translation to generate acoustic time-distorted records of musical memories which are then subjected to structural and electronic interventions, conveying experiences of nostalgia, euphoria, and surreality.

Image by Skye Sobejko

Led by Artistic Director Miranda Hill, Homophonic! is a leading voice in queer classical music since 2011.

Through performance, regional touring, and commissioning, the Homophonic! Pride Prize Composition Competition and the RESPECT project telling the stories of LGBTIQA+ elders in music.

For all enquires contact [email protected]

Homophonic! is a magically unique experience which produces nothing less than a musical utopia. It features all Australian composers and illuminates the diversity of the collective musical voice. It’s a yearly celebration of new music written by queer composers.

Miranda Hill brings classical chamber music into focus, telling our queer stories in a joyous and immersive manner. Celebrating queer lives while drawing artistic lineages through the generations.

Midsumma is thrilled to announce Sophie Rose as the recipient of the 2024 Homophonic! Pride Prize, presented by Midsumma and Homophonic.

Sophie will write for Soprano Judith Dodsworth, presenting the unforgettable performances in Moya Henderson's "Stubble" and Thomas Adès' "Life Story". Her commitment to new music has earned her a reputation in Australia and abroad as one of Australia’s leading exponents of contemporary classical vocal music.

"I’m overjoyed to have won the Homophonic! Pride Prize and to have the opportunity to write for soprano Judith Dodsworth. I can’t wait to start working on a piece that encapsulates individual and collective power, analogous to women and LGBTQIA+ activism, and explore hidden and vulnerable aspects of our lives as a statement of Pride and joyful rebellion." - Sophie Rose

Sophie Rose is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, extended technique enthusiast, composer, improvisor, researcher, multi-media artist, and maker. She is currently undertaking a PhD Interactive Composition sonifiying gestural data to represent trauma-induced mental states. Her work explores creative practice, interactive technologies, new instrument design, phenomenology, feminism, embodiment, time, and space. In performance works, Rose mixes technology and technical proficiency to explore the nexus of human potential and the affordances of machines. She most enjoys being immersed in the unfolding exploration of sounds in liminal spaces. In addition to her artistic practice, Sophie is an enthusiastic teacher and mentor.

"I am so excited to have Sophie Rose winning the Midsumma-Homophonic! Pride Prize! We were all blown away by her depth of creative vision, strong authentic musical voice, and the concept of 'joyful rebellion' as an intrinsic part of ageing as queer people. I'm already filled with anticipation for the premiere of this new work by soprano Judith Dodsworth at Homophonic! 2024!" - Miranda Hall

Homophonic! and Midsumma are thrilled to present the 2024 Homophonic! Pride Prize: The Composer Award.

The Homophonic! Pride Prize acknowledges and celebrates the art and achievement of queer-identifying composers from across Australia.

Composers from across Australia can submit their work for the award. The winning composer is awarded $2500, and guaranteed performance and live video of the performance.

Judith Dodsworth, Soprano

Sophie Rose
(credit to ReVerse Butcher and Kylie Supski)

Winner:

Invs Belmn
Solo Oboe and fixed Media
Written by James Rushford
Performed by Ben Opie.

With finalists selected from across the country, the 2023 winner, James Rushford, received a commission of $2,500 to compose a work in collaboration with Ben Opie, and a premiere performance at the next Homophonic! in Midsumma Festival.

James Rushford

James Rushford is an Australian composer-performer, whose work draws from concrète, improvised, avant-garde and collagist musical languages, staking out an idiosyncratic stylistic space that has been described as ‘electro-acoustic experimentation with a beating heart’ (Boomkat) and ‘haunted Jacobean ASMR’ (The Wire). Investigating the creases, cracks, and folds in traditions ranging from early music to new age, Rushford’s work subtly exaggerates seemingly liminal aspects such as atmosphere and the bodily presence of the performer until these take on a weight equal to musical elements such as pitch, rhythm and timbre.

James has created original work for BBC Scottish Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Ensemble Neon (Oslo), Speak Percussion (Melbourne), Ensemble Vortex (Geneva), MONA FOMA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Norway Ultima Festival, Unsound Festival, Tectonics Festival, Send and Receive Festival (Winnipeg), Adelaide Festival and Liquid Architecture (Melbourne). As well as previous projects with Klaus Lang, Annea Lockwood, David Behrman, Tashi Wada, Haroon Mirza and Dennis Cooper, he works regularly with Golden Fur (his trio with Sam Dunscombe & Judith Hamann), Joe Talia, Ora Clementi (with crys cole), Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger, Anthony Pateras, Will Guthrie, Graham Lambkin and Francis Plagne.

His music has been published by a variety of international labels including Unseen Worlds (US), Pogus (US), Penultimate Press (UK), Another Timbre (UK), Holidays (IT), Black Truffle (AUS), KYE (US) and Shelter Press (Fr).

In 2017, James completed a Doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts.

Ben Opie