Paul Lowin Prizes
Held every 2-3 years, the Paul Lowin's Prizes are one of Australia's richest prizes for music composition. The 2006 Paul Lowin Prizes will award two prizes: The Orchestral Prize ($25,000) and The Song Cycle Prize ($15,000).
History of the Paul Lowin Prizes
After immigrating to Australia in 1939, Czechoslovakian Paul Lowin worked as a wholesale dealer of cloth and dry goods, establishing the Swedish Handweaving Co. on George Street. Although a successful businessman, his work was never a main preoccupation. Mrs L Krips, a neighbour often visited by Lowin, wrote "We never found out what he was doing for a living, as nothing seemed to him important enough to talk about if he could talk about music".
Lowin's passion for music was manifest in the hand-written will found when, shortly after returning to Vienna in 1959, Lowin died of a heart attack. The will outlined his dream of encouraging excellence in music composition and his wish to establish a competition for works by living Australian composers.
It took thirty years for an appropriate scheme to be approved by the Chief Justice of NSW but eventually, in 1990, one of Australia's richest prizes for music composition was established. The competition was initially held every three years, but in 1995 further changes by the court enabled the competition to be held every two or three years. Since 1999 the prizes have been presented in collaboration with the Australian Music Centre.
