Welcome

from the Chairman

Australia has a rich heritage of classical music, largely unknown to the rest of the world. It deserves a wider audience. Australia's composers have tended to be overshadowed by her painters, writers, performers and filmmakers.

True, figures such as Percy Grainger have begun to make an unprecedented international impact - largely through a growing number of recordings. In Britain, names like Malcolm Williamson, Peter Sculthorpe and -more recently - Matthew Hindson, Carl Vine and others have come to the fore.

But the Australian Music Centre in Sydney, for example, represents over 500 composers. Their names illustrate not only the diversity of an evolving Australian society, but also the varied musical backgrounds which make Australian music such a fascinating mix.

Marking the Centenary of Australian Federation, 2001 was an ideal time for a re-evaluation of Australia's music and the first PAMC became an exciting chance for musicians of all nationalities to discover the unknown. 2007/08 will see further adventures into Australia’s music with the second Performing Australian Music Competition, culminating on 8 April, 2008.

Penelope Thwaites AM, Chairman.

This site works best with Netscape 4 or higher. However, other browsers should not experience any difficulties in accessing information - if you do have problems, please email the webmaster at