NOMINATION: Luminary - State and Territory
The Luminary Awards seek to honour individuals and organisations who, through sustained contribution (demonstrated over a period 3-5 years prior), have impacted their communities on a state or territory level through visionary leadership, fearless trailblazing, high-level artistic practice, and championing of Australian repertoire.
Nominations for individuals should demonstrate a program of activities or a range of projects rather than (for example) the recording and release of a single album. Nominations for a single work or project should be made in the Work of the Year or Excellence categories.
If you believe you are nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
Art Music Award guidelines →
Nominee
Jack Symonds
Nominated Project/Activity
Outstanding contributions to contemporary Australian opera
State/Territory
New South Wales
Nominator Statement
Jack Symonds has been at the forefront of the performance, production and composition of Australian music for more than a decade. As a conductor, pianist and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera he has brought to life a whole new repertoire of new Australian operas that have gone on to be performed nationally and around the world, redefining the artform and creating "an astonishing vision of what contemporary Australian opera can achieve" (Time Out). Symonds's tireless advocacy for exciting new work and compositional voices, exacting rehearsal technique, unerring skill at assembling exceptional creative/ performing teams and talent in bringing the many strands of opera to dynamic performances before the public marks him out as one of the most important forces in new Australian music of his generation. At Sydney Chamber Opera, he has fostered an ensemble of singers, instrumentalists and theatre makers that have become the international face of new Australian opera.
Alongside this, he has maintained a busy composing career uniting many of his performing colleagues in unique, extraordinary projects such as his opera Gilgamesh, which brought together 5 new music expert singers of greatly different backgrounds, two leading instrumental ensembles Australian String Quartet & Ensemble Offspring as well as Australia's most in-demand director, Kip Williams, all in collaboration with the national opera company, Opera Australia and home of contemporary performance, Carriageworks. Only Symonds could have written such an ambitious, bespoke work and assembled artists of this excellence to give it life before a large audience.
He has done the same for many other Australian composers, allowing them to create their most ambitious, large-scale operas and bringing them to the stage them with passion and faithfulness to each composer's unique vision.
Jack Symonds founded Sydney Chamber Opera (SCO) in Sydney, NSW and while having an impact on the contemporary operatic sector nationally through his contributions, SCO and Symonds' work has had immense impact on the sector particularly in NSW including its audiences and artistic community of directors, designers, singers, composers and instrumentalists.
Nominee
Jack Symonds
Nominated Project/Activity
Outstanding contributions to contemporary Australian opera
State/Territory
New South Wales
Alongside this, he has maintained a busy composing career uniting many of his performing colleagues in unique, extraordinary projects such as his opera Gilgamesh, which brought together 5 new music expert singers of greatly different backgrounds, two leading instrumental ensembles Australian String Quartet & Ensemble Offspring as well as Australia's most in-demand director, Kip Williams, all in collaboration with the national opera company, Opera Australia and home of contemporary performance, Carriageworks. Only Symonds could have written such an ambitious, bespoke work and assembled artists of this excellence to give it life before a large audience.
He has done the same for many other Australian composers, allowing them to create their most ambitious, large-scale operas and bringing them to the stage them with passion and faithfulness to each composer's unique vision.
Jack Symonds founded Sydney Chamber Opera (SCO) in Sydney, NSW and while having an impact on the contemporary operatic sector nationally through his contributions, SCO and Symonds' work has had immense impact on the sector particularly in NSW including its audiences and artistic community of directors, designers, singers, composers and instrumentalists.