Applications are now open for the 2023 Homophonic! Pride Prize: The Composer Award, which celebrates the work of queer-identifying Australian composers.

Presented by Homophonic! and Midsumma, the 2023 Prize will award a $2,500 commission to the winner to compose a new work in collaboration with oboist Ben Opie, which will be premiered as part of Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival, running 21 January – 12 February. Applicants are required to submit a seven to 10-minute piece for solo oboe or solo oboe and electronics/fixed media.

Oboist Ben Opie. Photo supplied

The Homophonic! Pride Prize was established in 2019. Each year, the winner works with a different performer across a series of workshops and meetings that match the working style of the two artists involved. This has led to three very different Prize-winning works including Stephen de Filippo’s Star Picc for flautist Laila Engle and Jaslyn Robertson’s Dream State for violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller. Sia Ahmad’s Depth Disintegration, composed for Benjamin Anderson on double-belled bass trombone, also won Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art at the 2022 Art Music Awards, presented by APRA AMCOS.

Opie has spent a significant part of his career exploring...