Perth-based composer Lachlan Skipworth has been awarded the 2017 Albert H Maggs Composition Award for his work Spiritus, which was premiered by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (with whom Skipworth is Composer in Residence) in March this year. The award includes a $7,000 commission as well as a $3,000 performance subsidy.

Lachlan Skipworth. Photo © Nik Babic

“This is one of the most exciting awards in Australia currently, as the commission prize means you can dream up any new work that you would like to write,” Skipworth told Limelight. “I’ve been hoping to write a work for the “Pierrot” sextet formation – a fairly standard ensemble for new music – for some time. This award gives me just that opportunity, and I’ll be working with Melbourne’s Syzygy Ensemble and an extended line-up of my own trio Intercurrent in Perth toward a premiere in 2018.”

The award is named for bookmaker Albert H. Maggs of Toorak in Victoria, who presented the University of Melbourne with a sum of money for the purpose of founding the award in 1966. It was first awarded to Nigel Butterley in 1967 and has since been won by...