Kalkadunga composer and musician William Barton will receive the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2023 Art Music Awards at a ceremony on 15 August at Carriageworks, Sydney.

Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the award recognises Australian musicians who have had a profound impact upon the Australian music scene. Barton, 42, will be as its youngest-ever recipient.

William Barton. Photo © Keith Saunders

“It’s pretty special,” Barton tells Limelight. “It’s a significant award from my peers, which makes it all the more special, to be acknowledged by all my colleagues. I share this success with my Indigenous community, the Kalkadunga people and those abroad; always connected.”

Established in 2002, the Distinguished Services Award was dedicated in Gill’s honour in 2019. Barton worked with Gill in 2008, as he conducted a Sydney Symphony Orchestra performance of Kalkadungu, a collaborative composition between Barton and Matthew Hindson. The work is a...