Internationally acclaimed composer, educator and researcher Professor Liza Lim AM will receive the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2026 Art Music Awards in Melbourne on 19 August.
by Paul Cashmere
Professor Liza Lim AM will be recognised with one of Australian music’s highest honours when she receives the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2026 Art Music Awards. The award presentation will take place at The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne on Wednesday 19 August, as part of the annual celebration of excellence across Australia’s contemporary classical, jazz, experimental and improvised music communities.
Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the Art Music Awards acknowledge composers, performers, educators and organisations that have made significant contributions to Australian music. Lim’s recognition reflects her international career as a composer and her ongoing work exploring the intersections between music, ecology, ritual, social change and the relationship between humans and the natural world.
The Richard Gill Award honours individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to Australian music. Lim joins a distinguished group of recipients recognised for their influence on the development, performance and understanding of Australian art music.
Lim’s body of work includes chamber music, orchestral compositions and five operas, including her large-scale cycle Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles and orchestras internationally, with much of her recent work examining ecological awareness and the role of listening in addressing environmental and social challenges.
In accepting the honour, Lim said the award represented a continuation of the values championed by its namesake.
“I am deeply honoured to receive this award. Music and the arts can be sources of joy, as well as acts of resilience and resistance. Too often, the arts are valued mainly for their practical or economic benefits, rather than as a vital expression of human freedom and creativity. Richard Gill believed passionately in that freedom, and I am honoured to play a small part in carrying his vision forward,” Lim said.
Lim has also played a significant role in Australian music through advocacy and education. In 2019, she became the inaugural Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She was also the first musician awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, beginning a five-year program from 2025 to 2029 focused on climate and social issues through music.
Her commitment to gender equity in composition and performance has included the Composing Women program, which has influenced commissioning practices, artistic leadership and opportunities for women composers. That work was recognised when she received the National Luminary Award at the 2022 Art Music Awards.
Further recognition has followed, including her appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2023 and the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for her cello concerto A Sutured World.
The 2026 Art Music Awards will also recognise seven State and Territory Luminary Award recipients whose work has shaped local and national music communities.
The recipients include Queensland musician, director and creator Alex Raineri for his work with the Brisbane Music Festival; NSW venue, promoter and studio People’s Republic for supporting new and experimental music; and ACT-based composer, educator and community facilitator Michael Sollis, who will be honoured posthumously.
Other recipients are South Australian flautist and artistic director Melanie Walters; Victorian arts organisation Chamber Made; Tasmanian ensemble Van Diemen’s Band for its Sirens program; and Western Australian composer and educator Hannah Lee Tungate for the Tenth Muse Initiative and Women Composers Project.
Chamber Made Artistic Director and CEO Tamara Saulwick said the Victorian award recognised the organisation’s decades of commitment to new Australian work.
“Chamber Made is honoured to receive the Victorian State Luminary Award. This is testament to four decades of championing new work, and the company’s ability to adapt and reimagine the role we can play in the arts landscape,” Saulwick said.
The 2026 Art Music Awards ceremony will feature performances curated by acclaimed artist Sia Ahmad. The program includes violinist, vocalist, dancer and composer Eric Avery with Flinders Quartet, pianist Sonya Lifschitz, Western and Carnatic violinist Bhairavi Raman with mridangam player and percussionist Nanthesh Sivarajah, collaborators David Moran, Maryam Rahmani and Sebastian Collen, and Reuben Lewis’ I Hold The Lions Paw featuring vocalist Michelle Nicolle and choir.
The remaining award categories will be announced during the ceremony, which will be hosted by Namila Benson with guest presenters Aura Go and Connor D’Netto.
The 2026 Art Music Awards continue a long-running national focus on recognising the diversity of Australian art music practice, from contemporary classical composition through to experimental performance, sound art and community-based projects.
2026 Art Music Awards
5.30pm, Wednesday 19 August 2026
The Timber Yard, 351 Plummer St, Port Melbourne, VIC
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