Award Winners

Belvoir was the biggest winner, achieving 13 wins across several productions, with diversity emerging as a powerful theme. Key categories went to Counting and Cracking, a Sri Lankan immigrant family saga (featuring a multicultural cast performing in six different languages), and Barbara and the Camp Dogs, a high-octane musical.

As always, we offer our congratulations to everyone on the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, and we take delight in singling out and celebrating a few of our own for their outstanding contribution to the arts.

Live Performance Australia (LPA) have announced the Helpmann Awards Nominees ahead of the Helpman Awards 2019 to be held in Melbourne next month, 14 and 15 July.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has won the 2019 AusCham Westpac Australia-China Business Award for Business Innovation, Creative Industries and the Digital Economy.

Soprano and Principal Artist with Opera Australia Natalie Aroyan has been announced as the recipient of the Harding Miller Foundation Opera Scholarship 2019.

Congratulations to Black Swan State Theatre Company's founding artistic director Andrew Ross and Black Swan actor and resident artist Ian Michael and West Australian Symphony Orchestra's Mark Coughlan (Chief Executive) for making the finals in 2019 Western Australian of the Year.

The Australian Ballet, in collaboration with Sydney Opera House and Dance Australia magazine, have announced the recipient of the Emerging Female Classical Choreographer Initiative.

Melbourne Arts industry celebrated and applauded the achievements across the locla performing arts sector at the 36th Green Room Awards.

Congratulations to BSSTC on winning the Perdaman-sponsored Workplace Diversity Excellence Award at the AIM WA Pinnacle Awards.

Congratulations to all the nominees in the 2018 Performing Arts WA Awards. The achievements of the WA local art sector will be celebrated on the 29 April at the 2018 Performing Arts WA Awards ceremony.

The winner of the prestigious Queensland Symphony Orchestra Young Instrumentalist Prize for 2019 is Gold Coast Grade 12 student, cellist Ho-Se Kim.

Contemporary works by leading and emerging Australian writers have been shortlisted for the 2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Thirty judges considered almost 600 entries across 10 prize categories, with the winners to be announced on the eve of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Renowned Australian director Elijah Moshinsky, one of the greats in opera and theatre, with an international career spanning more than 30 years, has been announced as a recipient of the Opera Australia Trophy, first presented to Dame Joan Sutherland in 1990.

The winners for the 2018 Matilda Awards and Sydney Theatre Awards have been announced as have Victoria's Green Room nominations, with winners to be announced in April.

The performing arts were in the spotlight at this year’s Australia Day awards with some 34 men and women applauded for their contribution to the arts.

At a star-studded ceremony, the winners of the 2018 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced, with 34 Awards presented, shared between 16 productions which played in Sydney in 2018.

Mountain, Australian Chamber Orchestra's cinematic collaboration with director Jennifer Peedom, was the recipient of three awards at the 2018 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards.

Sir Andrew Davis’ recording of Sir Edward Elgar’s Falstaff with the BBC Philharmonic and Roderick Williams (released November 2017 on Chandos Records) has won the Diapason d’Or de l’Année (Musique Symphonique).

Congratulations to this year’s Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Rising Star competition winner, thirteen year-old pianist Sheng–Yuan Lynch.

Circus Oz is the Winner of 'Tour of the Year' announced at the 2018 Drover Awards on Thursday 6 September at the closing celebration of the 32nd annual PAC Australia conference, Making Space.

Screen and stage writers, industry representatives and special guests gathered to celebrate the 51st year of the Australian Writers’ Guild’s AWGIE Awards, where over 25 Australian writers were recognised for their outstanding contribution to the Australian arts.

Malthouse Theatre and Footscray Community Arts Centre have announced the latest two recipients of the LIVING NOW residency. Congratulations Vidya Rajan and Ra Chapman!

Six talented dancers with The Australian Ballet have been announced as nominees for the prestigious Telstra Ballet Dancer Award 2018.

Maureen Wheeler AO and Tony Wheeler AO were awarded Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2018 Lifetime Patron Award at a special preview event for the Company’s 2019 Season.

The recipients of the 2018 Art Music Awards have been revealed across 11 national and six state/territory categories. A gala event honouring Australia’s finest art music composers from the genres of contemporary classical music, jazz, experimental music and sound art, was held at Melbourne’s Plaza Ballroom on Tuesday evening.

Congratulations to Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti - Jonny Greenwood for the receiving Best Independent Classical Album award at the AIR Awards.

In a packed Concert Hall at Sydney’s Opera House accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of celebrated conductor Dr. Nicholas Milton AM three incredibly talented young finalists competed to win the coveted ABC Young Performer Award.

The 2018 Helpmann Awards Act II was a star-studded ceremony in front of a full house at the Capitol Theatre Sydney on the set of Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical.

APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre have announced the 2018 Art Music Awards finalists .

From over 90 entries for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2018-19 (QDPA), and the trio of finalists revealed earlier this year, Brisbane writer David Megarrity has won with his tender and lyrical family-oriented play, The Holidays.

The ensemble took out the Grand Prize and First Prize in the Piano Trio division of the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (MICMC) this evening at Melbourne Recital Centre after a week of thrilling performances. First Prize in the String Quartet division went to the Goldmund Quartett from Germany.

Sue Smith is the new STC Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellow, Kim Ho wins the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and STC’s Emerging Writers’ Group participants will continue in the group for another year.

​Towering talent and unflagging passion and commitment have been celebrated with the award of the Australian International Opera Awards (AIOA) — Australia’s most prestigious vocal scholarship — and the Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy — one of the highest civilian awards in Italy.

Black is the New White by Nakkiah Lui (Sydney Theatre Company) awarded Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting.

The Matilda Awards honouring and celebrating the achievements of the Queensland theatre industry have been announced at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

2017 Sydney Theatre Awards announced 37 Awards shared between 18 productions including -Belvoir's Hir and STC's Muriel’s Wedding .

​A big congratulations to actors Miranda Daughtry and Matt Crook, who have both been named winners at the Adelaide Critics Circle Awards.

​Valerie Tereshchenko has been named the 2017 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award winner, one of The Australian Ballet’s most prestigious prizes.

​Belvoir is thrilled to announce that Emme Hoy has received the NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights in 2017.

​The first ARIA Awards for 2017 in the categories of Fine Arts, Artisan and Best Comedy Awards were announced on 10 October.

Playwright Leah Purcell has capped off an incredible year of recognition for her play The Drover’s Wife, taking home the top two writing honours at the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 50th Annual AWGIE Awards in Sydney on 25th August.

The 2017 Orchestral Work Of The Year award went to Lyle Chan for Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra (“My Dear Benjamin”) at the Art Music Awards night head at the City Recital Centre, Sydney on 22nd August.

At the Capital Theatre Sydney on Monday 24 July, the arts industry came together to celebrate the best in Australian performing arts at the announcement of the 2017 Helpmann Awards.

The Creative Partnerships Awards 2017 are all about celebrating outstanding contributions to Australia’s cultural life.

Gamilaroi woman Megan Wilding was announced as the winner of The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award 2017. The award was presented by Hamish Balnaves, General Manager of The Balnaves Foundation.

Queensland Symphony Orchestra was honoured as a Queensland Great at the Queensland Greats Awards.

Liver Performance Australia made the announcement ahead of the JC Williamson Award being officially presented to Richard Tognetti at the 17th annual Helpmann Awards on Monday 24 July at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney.

Award-winning conductor Patrick Burns, 33, has been chosen as the 2017 recipient of the $50,000 Hephzibah Tintner Conducting Fellowship.

*Andrew Bovell is the new STC Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellow
*Lewis Treston wins the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award
*Playwrights named for STC’s new Emerging Writers’ Group

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards announced Leah Purcell's The Drover’s Wife (Currency Press and Belvoir in association with Oombarra Productions) has been awarded Book of the Year and the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting.

AMPAG congratulates the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director, Alondra de la Parra, for winning the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction.

The full gamut of Australia’s performing arts was celebrated at the 34th Annual Green Room Awards on Monday this week in Melbourne.

Eight leading artists' contribution to Australia's innovative creative culture were acknowledged as recipients of the 2017 Australia Council Awards.

Queensland Theatre has dominated the 2016 MATILDA AWARDS to be Queensland’s most lauded company for the second year running, associated with eleven of the 16 category winners through four of its productions.

Almost 50 Australians have been nominated for their support of the arts or participation in the arts in the National Australia Day awards this week.

​Belvoir carried seven awards home from the Sydney Theatre 2016 Awards last night.

The theatre-making team behind Ruby’s Wish, Holly Austin, Adriano Cappelletta and Jo Turner have received the NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights.

Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement jointly awarded to– Rob Brookman, State Theatre Company of South Australia and Ulrike Klein, UKARIA Cultural Centre and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's contribution to the community recognised.

Claire Joachim, Social Media Specialist at the Opera House, is the third winner of the $20,000 scholarship, which was established in 2013 to honour the memory of Lloyd Martin, the Opera House’s longest-serving general manager (1978-97).

Congratulations to Malthouse Theatre’s I Am a Miracle, winner of the 2016 CHASS Australia Prize for Distinctive Work. Other shortlisted entries in this category were Cut the Sky: Five Songs for the Future(Marrugeku) and Am I (Shaun Parker & Company).

The first ARIA Awards for 2016 in the categories of Fine Arts, Artisan and Best Comedy Awards were presented on 5 October.

Malthouse Theatre’s production of I Am a Miracle has been nominated for the 2016 CHASS Australia Prize for Distinctive Work, and Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Associate Director Jeffrey Fowler has been nominated for the Prize for a Future Leader.

Sydney Theatre Company is inviting applications from Australia’s talented playwrights for the 2016 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellowship. The prizes are designed to benefit both emerging and established writers and have a total prize pool of $32,500.

The Awards recognise the significant achievements of Australian artists across a range of dance practices.

Michele Lee wins Drama Award including a full production in Queensland Theatre Company’s 2017 season.

​Bangarra's Stephen Page announced as the winner of the 2016 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award.

It was announced that Stephen Page, Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, will be the recipient of the 2016 JC Williamson Award.

Ursula Yovich receives the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award.

Tommy Murphy is STC’s new Patrick White Fellow. Neil Levi wins the 2015 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award.

At the inaugural Australian Circus Awards on Monday 18 April, Circus Oz Board Chair Wendy McCarthy, with fellow Board Members Jody Broun and Nick Yates, collected the Leading Contemporary Circus award on behalf of Circus Oz.

The 33rd Green Room Awards for 2015 performing arts productions in Melbourne were presented last month with Malthouse, Opera Australia, Sydney Dance Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir all taking home awards.

Mary Jo Capps, CEO of Musica Viva Australia, has been honoured for her arts leadership at the Creative Partnerships Awards held this week in Sydney.

Queensland Theatre Company was the big winner in this year’s Matilda awards, winning Best mainstage production, Lord Mayor's Award for Best new Australian work and Best male actor in a leading role (Dash Kruck) with Matthew Ryan’s play Brisbane, a 2015 world premiere drawing on true stories from the leafy streets of Brisbane set in the middle of World War II.

Belvoir took out several awards last night at the Sydney Theatre Awards ceremony, including Best Mainstage Production for Ivanov.

Belvoir announced the recipients of the NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights—Nakkiah Lui and S. Shakthidharan—the first time two people have been awarded the fellowship at the same time.

The State Theatre Company of South Australia and Windmill Theatre have won a CHASS Australia Prize for their multi award-­winning co-­production Pinocchio, in the category of Distinctive Work for a Performance.

A big winner at the Australian Dance Awards 2015 was Queensland Ballet, winning Outstanding Performance by a Company for Romeo and Juliet.

The 2015 Art Music Awards announced last week—and soloist Ashley William Smith and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Baldur Brönnimann, took out the Performance of the Year award for their exceptional performance of Lachlan Skipworth's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra.

This year's Helpmann Awards celebrated some standout performances of Australian arts, reflecting the trend in live performance towards collaborations and co-productions.

Limelight magazine has announced its ten best women conductors worldwide—a list that includes the Australian Ballet’s Music Director and Chief Conductor, Nicolette Fraillon.

​The 2015 Queens’ honour roll includes the names of many who have contributed significantly to the performing arts.

Actor and writer Katie Beckett (Kill the Messenger, Coranderrk) has been announced as the winner of The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award 2015

Kate Mulvany is the new Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellow.
Debra Thomas has won the 2014 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award.

Co-productions were major winners at this year’s Green Room Awards in Melbourne, announced this week, with Melbourne Theatre Company, Opera Australia and Malthouse all picking up gongs for joint endeavours.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was announced last night as a winner of one of the three Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards.

Queensland Theatre Company’s Gloria took out the top prize for Best Mainstage Production at the Matilda Awards in Brisbane this week.

The 32nd Green Room Award nominations for work presented in 2014 were announced.

AMPAG congratulates all the people who were acknowledged in the Australia Day honours awards—especially those wonderful benefactors and activists in the performing arts.

Last night the winners of the 2014 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced, with a record 33 awards presented.

Nominations for the Sydney Theatre Awards for 2014 were announced yesterday and will be presented at a gala ceremony on 19 January 2015.

State Opera of South Australia came home last night with the major Adelaide Critics Circle Award, winning the professional Group Award for the Philip Glass Trilogy.

Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Madama Butterfly recently won a Gold award in the NSW Tourism Awards.

Dimity Azoury, a coryphée with The Australian Ballet, has won the $20,000 Telstra Ballet Dancer award.

The education programs of two major theatre companies in Victoria were recognised last week by the Victorian Association of Drama Education.

Playwright Julia-Rose Lewis, whose play Samson will premiere in Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre next year, has won the 2014 NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights.

Some exciting work was celebrated at the WA Dance Awards in Perth on 21 November, including starring performances in Onegin by dancers in the West Australian Ballet.

At a dinner hosted for the Chinese President by Prime Minister Tony Abbott on 17 November, the SSO was named the winner in the arts category of the inaugural Australia-China Achievement Awards.

The Australian Dance Awards were announced last night at the Sydney Opera House—and Cinderella by The Australian Ballet was awarded Outstanding Performance by a Company.

​In a gruelling competition, ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the year was recently decided—and violinist Grace Clifford, at just 16 years of age, was declared the winner.

Katherine Thomson and Sue Smith, two Australian writers who have captured seminal moments of Australian history and drama in their work, were awarded Australian Writers’ Foundation Fellowships at the annual AWGIE Awards on 5 September.

Winners of the 2014 Art Music Awards were announced on 26 August 2014 in Melbourne.

In a slick production that gave each winner just 30 seconds to share the love and thank their mums, the Helpmann awards celebrated Australia’s performing arts at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney last night.

​Daniel Evans is the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2014–15 with Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

​This week, the three finalists for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award will be reading their plays at the Queensland Theatre Company’s Bille Brown Studio.

Musica Viva In Schools' interactive whiteboard and digital learning resources were included in The Guardian's list of ten global R&D projects that are changing arts and culture.

​A portrait inspired by the play, Black Diggers, has won the $50,000 Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award.

Angela Betzien was announced last Friday 23 May as the latest recipient of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellowship. Now in its fourth year, the Fellowship is a position for an established playwright whose work has been produced professionally in Australia within the last four years.

AMPAG congratulates all winners at the Green Room Awards, announced last night in Melbourne.

The Sidney Myer Performing Arts awards were announced last night (20 March 2014). With five winners for three awards, judges clearly found the decisions difficult.

Queensland Theatre Company celebrated at the Queensland Matilda awards held last Monday night (10 March) with 10 out of a possible 17 Matildas going to artists for work produced with Queensland Theatre Company including best new play 1001 Night.

Major performing arts companies picked up 69 nominations in Melbourne’s Green Room Awards, announced this week.

​The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Dawn Upshaw opened in Canberra on Friday with their Grammy award-winning work, Winter Morning Walks.

We will have to wait until June to discover the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award for 2014–15.

AMPAG congratulates all companies and individuals for their terrific achievements during 2013, celebrated on 20 January at the 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards.

'There’s a real spirit of adventure in Sydney theatre right now and a sense that a recent period of renewal and generational change has paid off.'-Sydney Theatre Awards judge and arts critic Jason Blake (Sydney Morning Herald). "Sydney’s theatregoers are the real winners here.”

At last night’s Australian Event Awards, Opera Australia won Best Community Event with Yarrabah The Musical.

Creative Partnerships Australia announced its national awards this week, which recognise Australia’s most successful and innovative relationships between the arts, business and donors.

AMPAG congratulates Li Cunxin, who last week was named as Queensland’s Australian of the Year 2014. Li is the Queensland Ballet's Artistic Director.

​Australia's major performing arts companies were recognised in 24 of the 42 Helpmann Awards in 2012. The awards, run by Live Performance Australia, celebrate and promote Australia's live performance industry.

This week Circus Oz received the 2013 Governor of Victoria Export Award – Creative Industries, presented at Government House Victoria by the Governor, the Honourable Alex Chernov AC QC and the Honourable Louise Asher MP.

Melbourne Theatre Company's NEON Festival of Independent Theatre has been named Best of Australian Arts 2013 in the theatre category awarded by The Monthly – Australia’s leading national magazine about politics, society and culture.

At the recent Art Music Awards, Brett Dean took out the Orchestral Work of the Year for Fire Music, performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The ASO also won the state award for Excellence in Music Education.

Playwright and actor, Jada Alberts, has won The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award 2013 at an event at the Belvoir St Theatre today.

In an extraordinary achievement, Sydney Dance Company scooped up three awards at the Australian Dance Awards winners presented in Canberra last night for its 2012 production of 2 One Another.

At the inaugural Australian Arts in Asia awards last night many inspirational forays into the Asian market were celebrated by artists and organisations across the spectrum, including two majors, Bangarra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Secret River dominated the artistic awards at last night Helpmann’s, taking out six gongs— Best Play, Best Direction (Neil Armfield), Best Music Direction and Best Original Score (Iain Grandage), Best Supporting Male Actor (Colin Moody) and Best New Australian Work (Andrew Bovell for his adaption of Kate Grenville’s novel).

Queensland Theatre Company has taken out the Community Award at the 2013 Queensland Reconciliation Awards in a ceremony held last night.