The Australian Music Foundation MFis a charitable foundation, first established in the United Kingdom, with the chief purpose of providing financial support to outstanding young Australian musicians who wish to pursue post-graduate music courses in leading music education institutions around the globe. It also offers performance opportunities in Australia and abroad, advice and mentoring to awardees. At inception, the AMF's activities were centred on the UK, reflecting a historical tradition of strong institutional links between Australian music academies and British institutions such as the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

and the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music school, music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz al ...

. In recent years the AMF has more actively expanded its field of activity to include North America, Europe, and South East Asia.

History

The AMF was initially established by Deed of Trust declared on 30 December 1975 in the United Kingdom (under the name of 'Australian Musical Foundation in London'), the original Trustees being Baron Goodman, Sir Davis Hughes, Mr Robert Norman, Group Cpt

Douglas Bader Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, (; 21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982) was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared ...

, Mr Sam Lynn, and Mr Guy Parsons OBE. The first awards were made in 1980. In 2006 an Australian Trust to support the work of the AMF was created under the name of "The AMF Australia Foundation". Professor

Peter Tregear Peter John Tregear OAM is an Australian musicologist, author and performer. Career Tregear's first academic appointment was as a lecturer in music at the University of Queensland in 1999. In 2000 he took up a Lectureship in music at Fitzwill ...

OAM was founding chair; Dene Olding took over in 2021.

Structure

The Australian Music Foundation (UK)

*Patron-in-Chief:

The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

KG *Patron: His Excellency the Honourable

George Brandis George Henry Brandis (born 22 June 1957) is an Australian former politician. He was a Australian Senate, Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party, and was a Cabinet (Australia), cabin ...

QC, Australian High Commissioner to the UK *President: Lord Broers Kt FRS FREng *Joint Life Presidents:

Richard Bonynge Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances ...

AC CBE,

Yvonne Kenny Yvonne Denise Kenny AM (born 25 November 1950) is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel, Mozart and bel canto roles. Biography Born in Sydney, Kenny first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become ...

AM *Life Presidents In Memoriam:

Dame Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voic ...

AC DBE,

Sir Charles Mackerras Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; (17 November 1925 – 14 July 2010) was an American-born Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associ ...

CH AC CBE, Dr Peter Andry, OBE OAM, Professor

Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigi ...

AO OBE, Sir

John Tooley Sir John Tooley (1 June 1924 – 18 March 2020)Tooley profile
announcements.telegraph. ...

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secreta ...

KG GCMG CH MC, Guy Parsons OBE *Chair (Board of Trustees):

The AMF Australia Foundation (AUS)

*Patron: His Excellency General the Honourable

David Hurley David John Hurley (born 26 August 1953) is an Australian former senior officer in the Australian Army who served as the 27th governor-general of Australia from 2019 to 2024. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales from 2014 to ...

AC DSC (Retd) *Chair (Board of Trustees): Dene Olding *Secretary: Mr Andrew Boxall

Awardees

*2015/16: Emily Edmonds (mezzo soprano), Lauren Fagan (soprano),

Alexandra Flood Alexandra Flood (born 26 February 1990) is an Australian operatic soprano. __TOC__ Career Born in Cowes, Victoria, Flood attended the Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne and studied from 2007 until 2010 at the University of Melbourne (B.A., Dip ...

(soprano), Andrey Lebedev (guitar), Stephanie Jones (guitar), Sonya Pigot (piano – AMF Nora Goodridge Young Artist Award) and Emily Sun (violin – AMF Nora Goodridge Emerging Artist Award). *2019/20: Magdalenna Krstevska (clarinet – AMF Nora Goodridge Developing Artist Award), Yvette Keong (soprano – AMF Nora Goodridge Young Artist Award), James Blackford (euphonium – AMF Guy Parsons Award), Victoria Wong (violin), David Soo (piano), Waynne Kwon (cello), Jeremy Kleeman (bass baritone), Courtenay Cleary (violin), Guillaume Wang (cello), Robbin Reza (piano), Mitzi Gardner (violin).

Alumni

Past awardees have become some of Australia's leading musicians in their field; they include: Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo-soprano),

Rosamund Illing Rosamund Illing is an English Australian soprano. Together with Richard Bonynge and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Illing was nominated for the 2000 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album for the album ''Amoureuse: Sacred and Profane A ...

(soprano), Ian Munro (piano),

Craig Ogden Craig Ogden is an Australian classical guitarist whose albums have topped the UK classical charts. He is Principal Lecturer in Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. Ogden began playing guitar at the age of seven, an ...

(guitar), Deborah Riedel (mezzo-soprano), Jeffrey Black (baritone), Mark Bonetti (cello),

Peter Coleman-Wright Peter Coleman-Wright (born 13 October 1958) is an Australian baritone from Geelong. He began his career at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang Guglielmo in ''Così fan tutte'', winning the Touring Prize. Subsequently, he sang Sid in ''Al ...

(baritone), Andrew Wheeler (conductor), Alexander Briger (conductor), Yelian He (cello),

Slava Grigoryan Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He frequently collaborates and performs with his younger brother, fellow guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, performing as the Grigoryan Brothers. Career Grigoryan signed with ...

(guitar), Clemens Leske (piano), Benjamin Bayl (organ),

Duncan Gifford Duncan George Gifford is an Australian-born concert pianist and teacher. Early life and education Gifford was born in Sydney. He was educated at Newington College (1985–1990), the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and in Russia at the Moscow Conse ...

(piano), David Hansen (counter-tenor), Laurence Meikle (baritone), Amir Farid (piano), Amy Dickson (saxophone), Lauren Fagan (soprano), Emily Sun (violin).

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.australianmusicfoundation.com/ Music charities based in the United Kingdom Music organisations based in Australia Arts organizations established in 1975 1975 establishments in the United Kingdom Foundations based in Australia Arts foundations based in Oceania