The Homophonic! Pride Prize Submissions

Applications are now open for the Annual Midsumma presents: The Homophonic! Pride Prize!

Write a new work for double bass to premiere at Homophonic! as part of Midsumma Festival.

All Australian composers who identify as LGBTQIA+ are encouraged to apply using The Homophonic! Prize Prize submission form.

There are no age limits, career stages, or entry fees. 

The work:

Duration: 7-10 minutes

Instrumentation: Solo double bass, OR double bass with fixed media electronics or pre record.
Options for gut or modern strings, and modern/baroque/classical bows.

The prize:

$2500 and performance at Homophonic! February 2026
3 workshopping sessions with Miranda Hill (in person or online)

Tickets to the premiere, (no flights or accommodation can be provided)
Live video and audio from the performance. 


Dates:
Applications open: TBC July 2025
Applications close: TBC  August 2025
Completed work delivered: 5 January 2026
Performance: February 2026

Soloist: Miranda Hill. Best known as the driving force behind Homophonic!, Miranda is a double bassist specialising in experimental and contemporary performance, improvisation, and historically informed baroque and classical performance practice.

A graduate of the VCA and The University of Michigan, Miranda’s performing career spans free jazz to Bach, and she can be found on stages in concert halls or pubs and everything in between all around Naarm/Melbourne.

Led by Artistic Director Miranda Hill, Homophonic! is a leading voice in queer classical music since 2011.

For all enquires contact [email protected]

Homophonic! is a magically unique experience which produces nothing less than a musical utopia. It features all Australian composers and illuminates the diversity of the collective musical voice. It’s a yearly celebration of new music written by queer composers.

Miranda Hill brings classical chamber music into focus, telling our queer stories in a joyous and immersive manner. Celebrating queer lives while drawing artistic lineages through the generations. 

Midsumma is pleased to announce Ashleigh Hazel as the recipient of the 2025 Homophonic! Pride Prize, presented by Midsumma and Homophonic!

Ashleigh will write for the trailblazing keyboardist, Jacob Abela, which will premiere at Homophonic! as part of Midsumma Festival in February 2025.

“I am very grateful to have been chosen as the winner of the Homophonic Pride Prize. I admire so many of the previous winners and it is an honour to be counted among them. I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to work on a piece that examines the nature of continuous identity, memory and replication through the use of old and new technologies, and to be doing this with Jacob Abela makes the prospect all the more exciting!” 

-Ashleigh Hazel

Ashleigh Hazel has a broad range of experience in the music industry, from being in a nearly nearly famous pop punk band, to writing music for international new music ensembles, to contributing to massive group improvising using household objects in a house conveniently reconfigured into a venue for an evening. They have always been fascinated by sound and its ability to reconfigure memory and recontextualise space. From an early age, they had a copy of Cubase installed on their family’s computer which they used to teach themself to dissect and sequence audio. They completed a Bachelor of Music from the ANU School of Music in 2017 and an honours year at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in 2020. During their academic career they received several scholarships and awards. They currently work as a producer for several local artists and have written music for art installations, theater and dance productions. Their practise also expands beyond music into installation with works like Knotts (2023), Blankets (2019), and Pieces for Cars Tunnel and Hexagonal Vents (2017).

“I am thrilled to announce Ashleigh Hazel as the winner of the Midsumma presents: The Homophonic! Pride Prize. Ashleigh is a bold musical voice working in a liminal and post-genre artistic space, and I am so excited to be supporting their new work for Jacob Abela. This new work will be grappling with concepts of (re)generation, ecosystems, and symbiosis between performer, performance, and composer. It's going to be amazing, and every performance is its own unique journey.”

– Miranda Hill

Midsumma is thrilled to announce Sophie Rose as the recipient of the 2024 Homophonic! Pride Prize, presented by Midsumma and Homophonic.

Sophie will write for Soprano Judith Dodsworth, presenting the unforgettable performances in Moya Henderson's "Stubble" and Thomas Adès' "Life Story". Her commitment to new music has earned her a reputation in Australia and abroad as one of Australia’s leading exponents of contemporary classical vocal music.

"I’m overjoyed to have won the Homophonic! Pride Prize and to have the opportunity to write for soprano Judith Dodsworth. I can’t wait to start working on a piece that encapsulates individual and collective power, analogous to women and LGBTQIA+ activism, and explore hidden and vulnerable aspects of our lives as a statement of Pride and joyful rebellion." - Sophie Rose

Sophie Rose is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, extended technique enthusiast, composer, improvisor, researcher, multi-media artist, and maker. She is currently undertaking a PhD Interactive Composition sonifiying gestural data to represent trauma-induced mental states. Her work explores creative practice, interactive technologies, new instrument design, phenomenology, feminism, embodiment, time, and space. In performance works, Rose mixes technology and technical proficiency to explore the nexus of human potential and the affordances of machines. She most enjoys being immersed in the unfolding exploration of sounds in liminal spaces. In addition to her artistic practice, Sophie is an enthusiastic teacher and mentor.

"I am so excited to have Sophie Rose winning the Midsumma-Homophonic! Pride Prize! We were all blown away by her depth of creative vision, strong authentic musical voice, and the concept of 'joyful rebellion' as an intrinsic part of ageing as queer people. I'm already filled with anticipation for the premiere of this new work by soprano Judith Dodsworth at Homophonic! 2024!" - Miranda Hall

Homophonic! and Midsumma are thrilled to present the 2024 Homophonic! Pride Prize: The Composer Award.

The Homophonic! Pride Prize acknowledges and celebrates the art and achievement of queer-identifying composers from across Australia.

Composers from across Australia can submit their work for the award. The winning composer is awarded $2500, and guaranteed performance and live video of the performance. 

Judith Dodsworth, Soprano

Sophie Rose
(credit to ReVerse Butcher and Kylie Supski)

Winner:

Invs Belmn
Solo Oboe and fixed Media
Written by James Rushford
Performed by Ben Opie. 

With finalists selected from across the country, the 2023 winner, James Rushford, received a commission of $2,500 to compose a work in collaboration with Ben Opie, and a premiere performance at the next Homophonic! in Midsumma Festival.

James Rushford

James Rushford is an Australian composer-performer, whose work draws from concrète, improvised, avant-garde and collagist musical languages, staking out an idiosyncratic stylistic space that has been described as ‘electro-acoustic experimentation with a beating heart’ (Boomkat) and ‘haunted Jacobean ASMR’ (The Wire). Investigating the creases, cracks, and folds in traditions ranging from early music to new age, Rushford’s work subtly exaggerates seemingly liminal aspects such as atmosphere and the bodily presence of the performer until these take on a weight equal to musical elements such as pitch, rhythm and timbre. 

James has created original work for BBC Scottish Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Ensemble Neon (Oslo), Speak Percussion (Melbourne), Ensemble Vortex (Geneva), MONA FOMA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Norway Ultima Festival, Unsound Festival, Tectonics Festival, Send and Receive Festival (Winnipeg), Adelaide Festival and Liquid Architecture (Melbourne). As well as previous projects with Klaus Lang, Annea Lockwood, David Behrman, Tashi Wada, Haroon Mirza and Dennis Cooper, he works regularly with Golden Fur (his trio with Sam Dunscombe & Judith Hamann), Joe Talia, Ora Clementi (with crys cole), Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger, Anthony Pateras, Will Guthrie, Graham Lambkin and Francis Plagne.

His music has been published by a variety of international labels including Unseen Worlds (US), Pogus (US), Penultimate Press (UK), Another Timbre (UK), Holidays (IT), Black Truffle (AUS), KYE (US) and Shelter Press (Fr).

In 2017, James completed a Doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts.

Ben Opie

Co-Artistic Director of Inventi Ensemble,

Artistic Director of The Peninsula Festival, and

general legend of the Australian new music community.