The award-winning saxophonist has been named as the 2016 Young Australian Achiever of the Year in the UK.
Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson has been awarded UK Young Australian Achiever of the Year Award for 2016. It’s the latest accolade in a quickly growing list of prizes for the young artist, who made her concerto debut at the age of 16, and her first recording as a soloist on her 18th birthday.
The award, presented by the Australia Day Foundation, recognises exceptional Australians sharing the spirit of Australia in the UK. Dickson was born in Sydney and moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music, undertaking further study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. “Amy is an outstanding young Australian,” says Australia Day Foundation Director Dick Porter, “and we are delighted to recognise her success with this award.”
Dickson was the first saxophonist to take home the James Fairfax Australian Young Artist of the Year Award, as well as a string of prizes including the Gold Medal at the Royal Overseas League Competition, the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year Competition and the Prince’s Prize. She’s a two-time GRAMMY-nominee, and she made history by becoming the first Australian and first saxophonist to win a Classic Brit Award as the 2013 MasterCard Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Gramophone described Dickson as a “player with a difference who has an individual and unusual tone, luscious, silky-smooth, sultry and voluptuous by turns; her phrasing is beautifully finished, her control of dynamic infinitely subtle.”
Her exceptional musicality has been recorded on six albums on the Sony Classical label, with her most recent release Island Songs featuring all-Australian music. It includes Peter Sculthorpe’s concerto of the same title, Ross Edwards’ concerto Full Moon Dances, and Brett Dean’s Siduri Dances – all works that were written for, or commissioned by, Dickson.
Joining Dickson on the list of Australian winners is Lynton Crosby, the Liberal Party strategist and adviser to the British Conservative Government, who has been named Australian of the Year in the UK. British chef Rick Stein, who owns a restaurant in Mollymook on the New South Wales South Coast, was named the Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK for 2016.
Amy Dickson’s CDs are available for purchase on her website.
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