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
Rubiks Collective
Nominated Project/Activity
Commissioning and presenting new Australian work
State/Territory
Victoria
Nominator Statement
In 2025, Rubiks Collective celebrates its 10th anniversary. In the ensembles first decade, they have created a distinct reputation for championing Australian music with a particular focus on highlighting works by women, emerging composers, and members of the LGTQIA+ community.
Key commissions and activities in the last five years include:
- Rorqual, a cross-genre song cycle by Wally Gunn inspired by the true story of the worlds loneliest whale featuring electronic interludes from Tilman Robinson, projections from video artist Chris Bennett and lighting design by Bronwyn Pringle.
- A Book of Hours, a multidisciplinary work combining stop-motion film and animation on screen with a dynamic live musical score. Created by composer Kate Neal, filmmaker Sal Cooper, choreographer Gerard Van Dyck and performed by Rubiks.
- Concerts of the Future, an interactive VR experience created with composer Ciaran Frame. This project broke new ground in interactive performance, enabling audiences to co-create music in virtual space and challenging the traditional relationships between performer and listener.
- Alice Chances Heirloom, a touching musical exploration of the relationships between grandmothers, mothers and daughters.
- performances of Deborah Cheethams Article 27: a work created in collaboration with Rubiks as part of Cheetham's Woven Song project, celebrating the stories and artworks of First Nations artists
- Shades of Night (Sylvia Lim, 2024), Sound Fields (Felicity Wilcox, 2022), Our House is on Fire (Bianca Gannon, 2021): works created through the Pythia Prize, Rubiks commissiong project focused on creating opportunities for women and gender diverse composers to collaborate on new works
In this period Rubiks have also performed and recorded works by Australian composers Holly Harrison, Samuel Smith, Christine McCombe, Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, Samantha Wolf, Leah Blankendaal, Melody Eötvös, Noemi Liba Friedman and Jakob Bragg.
Rubiks commitment to foregrounding Australian composers in their programming and commissioning makes them highly worthy of consideration for the 2025 Luminary Organisation.
Rubiks has been based in Melbourne throughout their 10-year history, and the majority of their performances to date have been held in Victoria. In their first decade they have grown from a student ensemble formed at ANAM to one of Victoria's leading new music ensembles, marked by their dedication to Australian music, storytelling and cross-artform collaborations.
Nominee
Rubiks Collective
Nominated Project/Activity
Commissioning and presenting new Australian work
State/Territory
Victoria
Key commissions and activities in the last five years include:
- Rorqual, a cross-genre song cycle by Wally Gunn inspired by the true story of the worlds loneliest whale featuring electronic interludes from Tilman Robinson, projections from video artist Chris Bennett and lighting design by Bronwyn Pringle.
- A Book of Hours, a multidisciplinary work combining stop-motion film and animation on screen with a dynamic live musical score. Created by composer Kate Neal, filmmaker Sal Cooper, choreographer Gerard Van Dyck and performed by Rubiks.
- Concerts of the Future, an interactive VR experience created with composer Ciaran Frame. This project broke new ground in interactive performance, enabling audiences to co-create music in virtual space and challenging the traditional relationships between performer and listener.
- Alice Chances Heirloom, a touching musical exploration of the relationships between grandmothers, mothers and daughters.
- performances of Deborah Cheethams Article 27: a work created in collaboration with Rubiks as part of Cheetham's Woven Song project, celebrating the stories and artworks of First Nations artists
- Shades of Night (Sylvia Lim, 2024), Sound Fields (Felicity Wilcox, 2022), Our House is on Fire (Bianca Gannon, 2021): works created through the Pythia Prize, Rubiks commissiong project focused on creating opportunities for women and gender diverse composers to collaborate on new works
In this period Rubiks have also performed and recorded works by Australian composers Holly Harrison, Samuel Smith, Christine McCombe, Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, Samantha Wolf, Leah Blankendaal, Melody Eötvös, Noemi Liba Friedman and Jakob Bragg.
Rubiks commitment to foregrounding Australian composers in their programming and commissioning makes them highly worthy of consideration for the 2025 Luminary Organisation.
Rubiks has been based in Melbourne throughout their 10-year history, and the majority of their performances to date have been held in Victoria. In their first decade they have grown from a student ensemble formed at ANAM to one of Victoria's leading new music ensembles, marked by their dedication to Australian music, storytelling and cross-artform collaborations.