2023 Australian Women in Music Awards announced – Limelight

At a ceremony held last night in The Tivoli in Brisbane, the winners of the 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) were announced.

Recognising the accomplishments and pioneering efforts of Australian female artists, the AWMAs aim to close the glaring gender equality gap that still remains in the Australian music industry.

The ceremony will also be broadcast on ABC iView on 29 September, and play on ABC’s TV channel the following day at 4pm.

Percussionist Claire Edwardes has won the Creative Leadership Award. This award recognises a musician whose curatorial efforts champion female champions female artists.

Across her career, Edwardes has worked as a collaborator in the creation of over 45 new solo and concerto works for percussion. Her 2021 solo project Rhythms of Change commissioned and presented a series of solo percussion works for students as composed by female Australian composers.  

She is also the founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring, whose 2017 season programmed only female composers, and whose programs are exemplary in the Australian music scene for equity in commissioning and presenting works by female composers. EO’s 2023 season reached roughly 50/50 equality in programming, and will deliver six world premiere works by female composers.

The Excellence in Music Award was given to oboist Celia Craig.

Craig served as Principal Oboe with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra between 2011-2018, and she has performed as Principal Guest Oboe with the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian and New Zealand symphony orchestras. She was also elected Chair of the BBC Symphony Orchestra,  where she worked with artists such as John Adams, Pierre Boulez and Andrew Davis, and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2018, she performed in the world premiere of Judith Weir’s Oboe Concerto, which was written for her. She has also delivered Australian premieres of concerti by composers by Jennifer Higdon and Connor Fogarty, as well as a trio work by Joe Chindamo.

Craig is the founder of independent record label Artaria, and has been an associate of the Royal Academy of Music since 1997. In 2020, she was appointed Resident Artist with the National Trust of South Australia.

Veteran country musician Judy Stone and soul singer Renée Geyer were inducted into the AWMA Honour Roll in acknowledgement of their outstanding contributions to Australian music.

Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to Kate Ceberano, Jeannie Lewis and Clare Moore. Vanessa Amarosi received the AWMA Inspiration Award. Naomi Price picked up the Live Creative Production Award.

The current Interim Head of Sound NSW, Emily Collins, received the inaugural ARIA Executive Leader Game Changer Award, awarded for leaders of the music industry breaking new ground in equality for women.

The full list of recipients for the 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards can be found here.