Australian Music Foundation


The Australian Music Foundation is a charitable foundation, first established in the United Kingdom, with the chief purpose of providing financial support to outstanding young Australian musicians who wish to pursue post-graduate music courses in leading music education institutions around the globe. It also offers performance opportunities in Australia and abroad, advice and mentoring to awardees.
At inception, the AMF's activities were centred on the UK, reflecting a historical tradition of strong institutional links between Australian music academies and British institutions such as the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In recent years the AMF has more actively expanded its field of activity to include North America, Europe, and South East Asia.

History

The AMF was initially established by Deed of Trust declared on 30 December 1975 in the United Kingdom, the original Trustees being Baron Goodman, Sir Davis Hughes, Mr Robert Norman, Group Cpt Douglas Bader, Mr Sam Lynn, and Mr Guy Parsons OBE. The first awards were made in 1980.
In 2006 an Australian Trust to support the work of the AMF was created under the name of "The AMF Australia Foundation". Professor Peter Tregear OAM was founding chair; Dene Olding took over in 2021.

Structure

The Australian Music Foundation (UK)

Past awardees have become some of Australia's leading musicians in their field; they include: Elizabeth Campbell, Rosamund Illing, Ian Munro, Craig Ogden, Deborah Riedel, Jeffrey Black, Mark Bonetti, Peter Coleman-Wright, Andrew Wheeler, Alexander Briger, Yelian He, Slava Grigoryan, Clemens Leske, Benjamin Bayl, Duncan Gifford, David Hansen, Laurence Meikle, Amir Farid, Amy Dickson, Lauren Fagan, Emily Sun.