Composer Kate Neal and percussionist Matthias Schack-Arnott have won large at this year’s awards.

Composer Kate Neal has taken out the Beleura Award for Composition at the Melbourne Prize for Music 2016. The Beleura Award is a new category with a purse of $25,000. Neal won the section with her composition for dancers and musicians Semaphore, competing against finalists Chris Dench, Mary Finsterer, Andrea Keller and Anthony Pateras.

^{Composer Kate Neal, photo © Andrew Wuttke}

Percussionist Matthias Schack-Arnott took out the Development Award – for an early career musician or group, 30 years of age and under, who demonstrate outstanding musical talent and the potential to develop their professional career – beating out Sophia Exiner, Rory Burnside, Gabriella Cohen and Tilman Robinson. The prize consists of $10,000 cash and a $6,000 Yamaha Music Australia Grant.

^{Percussionist Matthias Schack-Arnott}

Indigenous songwriter and activist Kutcha Edwards won the main event, the Melbourne Prize for Music 2016. Edwards has received the $60,000 prize – awarded to a Victorian musician or group whose work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian music and has enriched cultural and public life...