The biennial Australian Music Composition Competition has opened applications for its 2024 iteration.

Established in 2014, the competition is the brainchild of Australian classical guitarist Matt Withers, and aims to create opportunities for new Australian music, especially new guitar repertoire.

This year, the 2024 Australian Music Composition Competition will include over $13,000 in cash ($3000 to the winner) and prizes including the winner’s work recorded and included on a solo album alongside a new composition by Melbourne-based composer Nat Bartsch.

Applicants are invited to submit a written response to the inspiration artwork Coastal Edge by Olga Garner-Morris along with a portfolio of previous compositions. The deadline for submissions is Friday 11 October, 2024.

Coastal Edge. © Olga Garner-Morris

“Olga’s work depicting her interpretation of Queensland’s glasshouse mountains for me represents so much of the Australian scenery in one image, with dramatic shadows and light, movement and stillness, sound and silence,” says Withers.

“I am eager to read what ideas composers see in the art and how they would intend to write a new work for solo classical guitar. Guitar is such a versatile instrument which, like Olga’s painting, can be punchy and dramatic,...