NOMINATION: Luminary - Individual
The Luminary Awards seek to honour individuals who, through sustained contribution (demonstrated over a period 3-5 years prior), have impacted our community on a national scale 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
Julia Fredersdorff
Nominated Project/Activity
Contribution to Lutruwitan/Tasmanian arts sector via Artistic Directorship of Van Diemen's Band
State/Territory
Tasmania
Nominator Statement
Artistic Director of Van Diemens Band (VDB) Julia Fredersdorff works tirelessly in her mission to provide our beautiful island and its communities with top-quality, creatively inspired, approachable musical experiences that reflect our time and place.
Our state is one of the least well-resourced in terms of touring - it is difficult and expensive to get to, and is often left off national touring schedules. Since starting VDB in 2016, Julia has helped grow our vibrant but small community in almost every way conceivable through her visionary leadership, with education sitting side-by-side with performing as a core value of hers. I dont have space to list everything shes done, but she has:
brought interstate & international musicians here with VDB projects
upskilled local musicians through the VDB Fellowship to take part in mainstage projects with VDB
presented dozens of local & touring musicians from different genres in VDBs Lunchbox Concert Series in Nipaluna, Pataway/Burnie and Launceston
provided audiences with affordable, accessible concerts in these Lunchbox Concerts ($10 tickets!)
provided regional audiences with top-quality concerts, creating deep relationships with these communities
amplified existing community education groups by involving their students in VDB projects, and regularly sending VDB artists to take workshops at no cost to the community groups or students
attracted some of the countrys top musicians & arts administrators to move to Nipaluna/Hobart through her development of an artistically exciting, balanced culture - and enough work!
created Van Diemens Fiddles, whose core aesthetic embraces the differences in the distinct musical backgrounds of the four fiddlers
created Van Diemens Voices, a chamber choir led by celebrated vocalist Quin Thomson that gives instrumentalists an opportunity to use their voices
commissioned Australian composers to write new works for VDB, as well as arrange and reset ancient ones - this is a core, ongoing part of VDB programming
While her area of expertise and the main focus of VDB is baroque music; Julia has helped push the boundaries of this field - she is not content to only program and play the music that western history has left us, but reframes it through contemporary lenses such as feminist / GNC retellings. She is also a savvy businessperson, prioritising payment and conditions for artists while keeping VDB afloat even as other music entities (MONA FOMA, Musica Viva Tasmania) have wrapped up.
She weaves her Baroque practice together with contemporary music and music of other cultures. In Where Everything Is Music, she has brought two members of Afghanistans Ensemble Kabul out to tour Lutruwita, together with VDB, Sephardic fiddler Rachel Meyers and mandolinist Luke Plumb - and this year is touring that program to the rest of Australia.
She does all of this in the service of storytelling. This quality transforms the music VDB plays, creating a real sense of connection between music, audience and place.
Julia is a trailblazer and change-maker, and an integral part of shaping the arts in Lutruwita. I have seen people react to VDB events not just with admiration or pride but with what I can only describe as love. I cannot recommend her highly enough for a Luminary Award.
Nominee
Julia Fredersdorff
Nominated Project/Activity
Contribution to Lutruwitan/Tasmanian arts sector via Artistic Directorship of Van Diemen's Band
State/Territory
Tasmania
Our state is one of the least well-resourced in terms of touring - it is difficult and expensive to get to, and is often left off national touring schedules. Since starting VDB in 2016, Julia has helped grow our vibrant but small community in almost every way conceivable through her visionary leadership, with education sitting side-by-side with performing as a core value of hers. I dont have space to list everything shes done, but she has:
brought interstate & international musicians here with VDB projects
upskilled local musicians through the VDB Fellowship to take part in mainstage projects with VDB
presented dozens of local & touring musicians from different genres in VDBs Lunchbox Concert Series in Nipaluna, Pataway/Burnie and Launceston
provided audiences with affordable, accessible concerts in these Lunchbox Concerts ($10 tickets!)
provided regional audiences with top-quality concerts, creating deep relationships with these communities
amplified existing community education groups by involving their students in VDB projects, and regularly sending VDB artists to take workshops at no cost to the community groups or students
attracted some of the countrys top musicians & arts administrators to move to Nipaluna/Hobart through her development of an artistically exciting, balanced culture - and enough work!
created Van Diemens Fiddles, whose core aesthetic embraces the differences in the distinct musical backgrounds of the four fiddlers
created Van Diemens Voices, a chamber choir led by celebrated vocalist Quin Thomson that gives instrumentalists an opportunity to use their voices
commissioned Australian composers to write new works for VDB, as well as arrange and reset ancient ones - this is a core, ongoing part of VDB programming
While her area of expertise and the main focus of VDB is baroque music; Julia has helped push the boundaries of this field - she is not content to only program and play the music that western history has left us, but reframes it through contemporary lenses such as feminist / GNC retellings. She is also a savvy businessperson, prioritising payment and conditions for artists while keeping VDB afloat even as other music entities (MONA FOMA, Musica Viva Tasmania) have wrapped up.
She weaves her Baroque practice together with contemporary music and music of other cultures. In Where Everything Is Music, she has brought two members of Afghanistans Ensemble Kabul out to tour Lutruwita, together with VDB, Sephardic fiddler Rachel Meyers and mandolinist Luke Plumb - and this year is touring that program to the rest of Australia.
She does all of this in the service of storytelling. This quality transforms the music VDB plays, creating a real sense of connection between music, audience and place.
Julia is a trailblazer and change-maker, and an integral part of shaping the arts in Lutruwita. I have seen people react to VDB events not just with admiration or pride but with what I can only describe as love. I cannot recommend her highly enough for a Luminary Award.