Prelude – A national residency program for composers

Now in its fifth year, Prelude has created a national network dedicated to supporting new works from Australian composers.

Prelude offers long-term residencies allowing composers to focus on their craft while residing in one of three heritage listed Australian homes. Applications for composers are open now and will close on 23 August 2020.

Prelude supports Australian composers with the time and space to create new work by providing accommodation and a generous stipend. Located in the Barossa Valley (SA), Perth (WA) or Sydney (NSW), the program is open to composers from any genre and at any stage of their career.

This is what current and past Prelude residents have said:

Being able to live and work in the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer’s House has been one of my career highlights. To have the opportunity to fully immerse myself in my practice has given me the inspiration to further project myself into other areas of creativity that I wouldn’t have had time to otherwise. And to do it within a building that already holds so much creative energy is a real goldmine for any artist.

Ngaiire – Peggy Glanville-Hicks House 2019

I’m so glad I chose Gallop House in Perth. The community here has been so warm, open and generous. Perth just keeps on giving and giving. What a blessing.

Chris McNulty – Gallop House 2019

Many artists have ideas for ‘dream’ projects in the back of their mind that are at once exciting and daunting. They would constitute some kind of artistic breakthrough but might be especially demanding in terms of their scale or the extra care and effort that would be needed to see them through. A Prelude residency gives musicians a special opportunity to make such a break-through. The time and space give you the platform from which to make these ambitious projects happen, and it’s a really significant opportunity to give to an artist. I’m very grateful for the foresight and generosity that has made this rather unique program a reality.

William Gardiner – Beaumont Cottage 2019

The Prelude program builds on the established residency at Peggy Glanville-Hicks House in Paddington, Sydney.
The other residencies are at Gallop House in Dalkeith, Perth (owned by the National Trust of WA) and Collingrove House, Angaston, SA (owned by the National Trust of SA).

Prelude is managed by Bundanon Trust on behalf of the Peggy Glanville Hicks Trust. Bundanon Trust also hosts the largest artist residency program in the country at its base on the NSW south coast.

“Prelude is a gift to the composers of Australia, and we are proud that Bundanon can apply its experience in hosting artists’ residencies to a network that spans the country,” said Bundanon Trust CEO Deborah Ely.

Prelude is a unique collaboration between Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers Trust, Bundanon Trust, The National Trust of Western Australia, the National Trust of South Australia, funded by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts.