McCredie Musicological Award
The McCredie Musicological Award recognises outstanding contribution in musicology by an Australian early career scholar. It is one of Australia’s most prestigious awards for the study of musicology – from performance practice, music in the cultural context, through to the theory, analysis and composition of music.
Eligibility
- The award is based on a nomination process and nominations will be accepted by Fellows and non-Fellows. The Nominator must obtain the permission of the Nominee before nomination. Self-nominations are not accepted.
- The Award will be made for work which leads to an outstanding contribution to musicology by a resident Australian scholar.
- Nominees should have completed a degree at an Australian university.
- Nominees must be in the early stages of their careers, which will be determined, inter-alia, by how recently a PhD was conferred. In normal circumstances it should have been conferred no more than five years prior to the closing date for nominations.
- Nominees who have received their PhD more than five years ago but who can demonstrate a significant, commensurate period of career interruption (such as maternity or parental leave, carer’s responsibility, illness, unemployment, or non-research employment) may be considered eligible. This includes disruptions caused by COVID-19. A justification for the career interruption must be submitted as part of the proposal.
Criteria
- The nominee’s s work must be academically rigorous and may consist of either a single large-scale study or a body of work. The nominee’s work may take a variety of forms, and eligible works may include (but are not limited to) monographs, articles, critical scholarly editions, digital resources, and collections of essays.
- In accordance with the McCredie bequest, this Award encourages applications on: ‘the historical and/or systematic streams of musicology. The historical streams should cover European, Euro-Islamic or Euro- Semitic studies or those in the high cultures of Asia or in the field of transplanted or multi-lingual musical traditions.’
- Outstanding contributions to musicology, more broadly defined, will also be considered.
Nominations
Nominations open again in 2027.
Enquiries may be directed to grants@humanities.org.au.
Award History
Australia’s most prestigious award for the study of music was created through a generous bequest by Andrew McCredie AM FAHA (PDF, 547KB) (1930–2006). It celebrates his outstanding career as an Academy Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Musicology at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide. Professor McCredie was an eminent musicologist who greatly influenced the teaching of music in Australian universities and schools.
Past recipients
Dr Sarah Kirby is the recipient of the 2023 McCredie Musicological Award. A Grainger Fellow in the Museums & Collections department of the University of Melbourne, Dr Sarah Kirby began her career studying piano at the University of Melbourne, but towards the end of her undergraduate degree, discovered musicology and was instantly drawn to the intersection of history and music.
Dr Sarah Collins is the recipient of the 2019 McCredie Musicological Award. Dr Collins is a senior lecturer of Musicology at the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music. Her research focuses on the intersection between political, aesthetic and ethical concerns in music literature of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Dr David Irving, University of Melbourne, for his combined research on the performance of music between c.1550–1800 and the role of music in intercultural exchange with a particular focus on southeast Asia. Dr Irving was elected Fellow of the Academy in 2015.
Dr Michael Hooper, University of New South Wales, for his research of the music of Australian composer David Lumsdaine – possibly the first monograph on any Australian composer devoted to the analysis of their music.