The Accompanists’ Guild of SA presents the 2013 Geoffrey Parsons Award on Sunday August 18 with a jury led by British/Australian Opera Répétiteur/Pianist David Barnard.
In 2013, thanks to the support of the Royal Commonwealth Society, the 1st prize will be $5,000 with 2nd prize of $1500 and 3rd prize of $1000.
The 2013 set work is: L’air des bijoux (Jewel Song, from Faust) – Gounoud, to be performed with soprano Gisele Blanchard.
*Application form – download here*
Deadline: 30 July 2013
Background to the Award
For the last 28 years The Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia has organised an annual prize for accompanists’ with international judges, leading South Australian musicians and unforgettable prizewinners’ recitals with acclaimed Australian musicians.
In 1995, following the death of our International Patron, Australian-born but London-based Lieder accompanist extraordinaire Geoffrey Parsons, the prize was named in his memory.
The Geoffrey Parsons Award is an annual prize with a cash-pool of $2,500. To mark the 25th Anniversary of the Guild, in 2008 this has been increased to $6,000.
In recent years, the prize has received the generous support of the University of Adelaide, Elder School of Music (now Elder Conservatorium of Music), which has given the prize an added level of prestige and public profile.
As well as the University of Adelaide’s support, each year the Guild organises a lavish fundraising dinner with food, wine and a raffle which helps raise much of the monies needed to make such a prize possible.
Musicians prizewinners have had the fortune to perform with in their prize-winners recitals have included cellist, Niall Brown; violist, Keith Crellin; soprano Teresa La Rocca; violinist, Michael Milton; mezzo-soprano, Rosalind Martin; violinist, Beryl Kimber and cellist, Janis Laurs.