The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

in honour of

Don Banks Donald Oscar Banks (25 October 19235 September 1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music. Early life and education Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He learned the saxophone as a boy in Aust ...

, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. Nominations for music artists, including performers and composers from all areas of music, are invited. The award is considered the nation's most valuable individual music prize. It is intended for artists 50 years and over and is granted only once in an artist's lifetime. Prize recipients receive $25,000 AU as a reward for their contribution towards Australian music. The 2021 recipient is William Barton.

Award recipients

* 1984 – Larry Sitsky AO, FAHA, composer, pianist * 1985 –

Nigel Butterley Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley (13 May 1935 – 19 February 2022) was an Australian composer and pianist. Life and career Butterley was born in Sydney and learned to play the piano at the age of five. He attended Sydney Grammar School, but musi ...

AM, composer, pianist * 1986 –

Felix Werder Felix Werder AM (24 February 19223 May 2012) was a German-born Australian composer of classical and electronic music, and also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he composed all his life. His published ...

AM, composer * 1987 – Martin Wesley-Smith AM, composer * 1988 – Brian Howard, composer, conductor * 1989 –

Ross Edwards Ross Edwards (born 1 December 1942) is a former Australian cricketer. Edwards played in 20 Test matches for Australia, playing against England, West Indies and Pakistan. He also played in nine One Day Internationals including the 1975 Crick ...

AM, composer * 1990 – Colin Brumby, composer, conductor * 1991 –

Ros Bandt Rosalie (Ros) Edith Bandt (born 18 August 1951 in Geelong) is an Australian composer, sound artist, academic and performer. Biography Bandt was born in Geelong, Victoria. Her father Lewis Bandt was a car designer and notable for designing the fi ...

, sound artist * 1992 –

George Dreyfus George Dreyfus AM (born 22 July 1928) is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer. Early life and orchestral career Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons b ...

AM, composer * 1993 –

Moya Henderson Moya Patricia Henderson (born 2 August 1941 in Quirindi, New South Wales) is an Australian composer. A graduate of the University of Queensland, Henderson was Resident Composer at Opera Australia during their first season at the Sydney Opera ...

AM, composer * 1994 – Roger Smalley AM, composer, pianist, conductor * 1996 – Richard Mills AM, composer, conductor * 1997 –

Richard Meale Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE (24 August 193223 November 2009) was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas. Biography Meale was born in Sydney. At the time the Meale family lived in Marrickville, an inner suburb of Sydney. Meale' ...

AO MBE, composer * 1998 – Bernie McGann, jazz saxophonist * 1999 –

Brenton Broadstock Brenton Thomas Broadstock (born 1952) is an Australian composer. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day in 2014 for "significant service to music as a composer, educator and mentor". Biography Broadstock was b ...

AM, composer * 2000 – Bunna Lawrie, of the Aboriginal band Coloured Stone * 2001 –

Allan Browne Allan Vincent Browne (28 July 1944 – 13 June 2015) was an Australian jazz drummer and composer first known for his work in The Red Onion Jazz Band in the 1960s. Browne won the ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album in ARIA Music Awards of 1990 an ...

OAM, jazz drummer * 2003 – John Curro AM MBE, music educator * 2004 –

Jan Sedivka Jan Boleslav Sedivka (in Czech: Šedivka) (Slaný, 8 September 1917 Hobart, 23 August 2009), Czech-born, was one of Australia's foremost violinists and teachers. Biography Educated in Czechoslovakia (Otakar Ševčík and Jaroslav Kocián), Fra ...

AM, violinist, teacher * 2005 – Carl Vine AO, composer * 2006 – Richard Gill AO, conductor * 2007 – Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE, composer * 2008 –

Bob Sedergreen Bob Sedergreen (born 1943) is an Australian jazz pianist. Sedergreen has worked with John Sangster, Don Burrows, and Brian Brown and supported Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Jackson. Biography Sedergreen was born in Mandatory P ...

, jazz pianist * 2009 –

Tony Gould Tony Gould is an Australian jazz musician, pianist, composer and educator. Gould's many recordings and performances reveal his harmonic view of music and his love of music from both African-American and European jazz traditions, as well as the c ...

AM, jazz pianist * 2010 – Warren Fahey AM, folklorist * 2011 – Belinda Webster OAM, producer * 2012 –

Jon Rose Jonathan Anthony Rose (born 19 February 1951) is an Australian violinist, cellist, composer, and multimedia artist. Rose's work is centered in the experimental music known as free improvisation, where he has created large environmental multimedi ...

, violinist * 2014 – Mike Nock, composer, pianist * 2015 –

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...

AM, musician * 2016 – Brett Dean, composer * 2017 – Lyn Williams AM, choir director * 2018 – Liza Lim, composer * 2019 –

David Bridie David Ross Hope Bridie is an Australian contemporary musician and songwriter. He was a founding mainstay member of World music band Not Drowning, Waving which released six studio albums to critical acclaim. He also formed a chamber pop group, ...

, composer, singer/songwriter *2020 –

Deborah Conway Deborah Ann Conway (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top 5 hit "Man Overboard". Conw ...

, singer-songwriter and guitarist *2021 – William Barton, composer and didgeridoo virtuoso Credits:

References

External links

Australian Council - Don Banks Music Award
* ttp://www.jazz.org.au/features/273?regions 'Sedergreen Wins Don Banks Award', Jazz Australia{dead link, date=December 2016 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
'Australia's top music prize for jazz legend', Australian Stage
Australian music awards