Philip Neill Memorial Prize

The Philip Neill Memorial Prize is an annual prize administered by the University of Otago for excellence in original composition. The award is open to all past and present students of a university in New Zealand, except previous winners who are excluded for a period of five years.
It was established in 1943 in memory of Philip Foster Neill, a medical student at the University of Otago who died during the polio outbreak of 1943. In the first year of the prize, 1944, the topic was for a prelude and fugue for either piano or organ. Douglas Lilburn was publicly awarded the first prize of £25 on 25 June 1944, with Harry Luscombe of Auckland the runner-up. It is the longest continuously running award of its kind in New Zealand.
The prize is determined each year with a set task with different parameters each year, usually relating to duration and instrumentation, which are announced early in the year, with a deadline for submission at the beginning of July. The prize is not always awarded.

List of award recipients

1944 Douglas Lilburn for for organ
1945 Harry Luscombe for Sonata in G major for violin and piano
1946 Frank Callaway for Theme and Variations for String Orchestra
1947 tied between Dorothy Scott for, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and violin, cello and piano and Dorothea Anne Franchi for The Desolate Star a song cycle for baritone and piano setting text by Robin Hyde
1948 John Ritchie for Passacaglia and fugue on an original theme for two pianos
1949 Charles Martin for Sonata for pianoforte and violin
1950 Claire Neale for Variations on an original theme in the phyrgian mode, with a ground bass finale
1951 Georgina Smith for Theme and Variations
1952 Leslie Pearce Williamson Jordan for Fantasy-sonata for cello and piano
1953 No award
1954 Nigel Eastgate
1955, 1956, 1957 No award
1958 Barry Vercoe for A Program Suite for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon
1959 Dorothy Freed for and Philip Hodgson
1960, 1961 No award
1962 shared between Robin Maconie for Basia Memoranda for lyric tenor and string quartet and Graham Hollobon for setting text by Alastair Campbell
1963 William Southgate for Toccata for Brass Choir and Jenny McLeod
1964 No award
1965 Jack Body for Cantata for the festival of dedication of a church
1966 William Hawkey
1967, 1968 No award
1969 Noel Sanders
1970 Gillian Bibby for Sanctuary of the Spirits, a children's opera,
1971 John Rimmer for Composition 2
1972 Christopher Norton
1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 No award
1978 David Hamilton for Canticle 1 for oboe, baritone and piano.
1979 Peter Adams for Sings Daphne for Soprano, Clarinet and Piano
1980 John Ritchie for Three Housman Songs
1981 No award
1982 Helen Caskie for Rhapsody for violin and piano
1983 No award
1984 Richard Francis for Song-cycle for Baritone and Pianoforte
1985 Nigel Keay for
1986 No award
1987 Eve de Castro-Robinson for Undercurrents for solo clarinet
1988, 1989, 1990 No award
1991 Maria Grenfell for A Pinch of time ; five songs for bass-baritone and piano setting poems by Hone Tuwhare, Kevin Ireland and Allen Curnow
1992 John Elmsly for Songs from 'The Treehouse' for SATB choir
1993 Eve de Castro-Robinson for Split the Lark for violin and piano
1994 Tecwyn Evans for Gerauschvoll for organ
1995 Christopher Marshall for
1995 Dorothy Buchanan for for voice, clarinet and piano.
1996 Cheryl Camm for Three Burns Songs for Soprano, Clarinet and Cello
1996 Michael Norris
1997 David Farquhar for Prospero
1998 No award
1999 Jeroen Speak for Etudes.
2000 Leonie Holmes for A Tedious Brief Scene: Bottom's Dance for mixed chamber ensemble of nine players
2001 No award
2002 Thorsten Wollman for Fishes and Birds for flute or violin, clarinet and piano
2003 John Rimmer for Bowed Insights for string quartet
2004 Robin Toan for Maze for piano and two percussionists
2005 No award
2006 Carol Shortis for The Riddle of her flight
2007 Brian Bromberg
2008 Chris Adams for Persephone for String Quartet
2009 Jack Body for Mediations on Michelangelo
2010 No award
2011 Alex Campbell-Hunt for
2012 Corwin Newall for Scientists
2013 Kerian Veraine for for violin and piano
2014 Linda Dallimore for Syria: In Empathy for oboe and piano
2015 Jeremy Mayall for Frosted Air Suite for flute and electronics
2016 Reuben Jelleyman for Soliloquy for Cello
2017 No award
2018 Corwin Newall for #babylife for piano duet
2019 Megan Kyte for Entends
2020 David Hamilton for Canticle 6: Fragments from Lorca for Mezzo, Violin and Piano, highly commended Chris Adams for Dowland Fragments for Mezzo, Violin and Piano
2021 Ben Hoadley for Four Preludes for cello and piano