The Brian Stacey Award
The Brian Stacey Award |
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This unique award launched in 2002 targets Australian emerging conductors of Music Theatre, Ballet, Opera and Classical music genres worthy of further assistance and to enable them to gain opportunity to broaden their musical knowledge and further valuable experience.
The winner will be chosen from entries submitted to the Musical Advisory Committee, who will make their recommendations for Nominees/Winner and the Brian Stacey Memorial Trustees will then choose the winner. The winner will be announced on 1 July 2008 and will be presented with a $5,000 prize plus appear at the Helpmann Awards Ceremony in Sydney on 28 July, 2008.
Brian Stacey’s tragically curtailed musical career was remarkable for its breadth of interest and expertise. Stacey resisted efforts to be pigeon-holed into any particular genre; indeed he firmly believed that his experiences in one genre informed and improved his performances in another. In the last year of his life he conducted ballet, opera, musicals, concerts and recordings, as well as participating in a number of other musical projects.
In establishing the Brian Stacey Memorial Trust, Stacey’s family, friends and colleagues chose to honour his professional choices by creating an award that would help to encourage emerging conductors to gain experience, in particular by crossing art-form barriers. The Trust’s first award allowed Guy Noble, then known foremost as a conductor of musicals, to compose, conduct and record a Flute Concerto, which was subsequently broadcast on the third anniversary of Stacey’s death, in October 1999.
In recent years the Trust has expanded its brief to allow a more general support for emerging conductors. From 1999 to 2001 the Trust contributed an award to the Westfield Young Conductor of the year programme, managed by Symphony Australia. The Trust’s decision to approach Live Performance Australia, who manage the Helpmann Awards reflects its belief that the Stacey Award, like its namesake, should not be confined to any single area of musical endeavour.
Stacey’s unique career was inspired by a small number of mentors, most notably Sir Charles Mackerras, through whose encouragement and sponsorship Brian gained his first foothold into international opera. A donor to the Brian Stacey Memorial Trust once enclosed a note with his payment, complimenting the Trust for “keeping (Stacey’s) unique flame alive (by) passing the Stacey baton to another generation”. The donor went on to comment on how “chuffed” Stacey would be “to think that he may well prove to be the same catalyst for young talent as ‘Charlie’ Mackerras was for him.”