Music Industry News

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music Toi te Arapūoru, in collaboration with APRA AMCOS Te Tautāwhinga, is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2026 SOUNZ Contemporary Award Te Tohu Auaha, celebrating excellence in contemporary composition:

Samuel Holloway for Soft Logic
Dylan Lardelli for Light Lines
Ihlara McIndoe for curio
Michael Norris and Nicholas Denton Protsack for Partial Forms

This year’s judging panel were faced with the difficult task of assessing 55 entries from 41 New Zealand composers. The entries represented a wide range of musical styles in the broader art music genre, ranging from contemporary classical works for large and small ensembles, to jazz and sonic art. The high quality of the compositions submitted was reflected in the judges’ decision to announce four finalists this year.

The finalists were selected by an independent panel of music industry professionals; New Zealanders Bridget Douglas, Chris Gendall, Hermione Johnson, and Riki Pirihi, as well as international representative Andrew Norman (United States), Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music. On the selection process, Andrew says:

“It was my great pleasure to get acquainted with a diverse swathe of work from New Zealand through my role as a judge for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award. The level of all the music was impressively high; the creativity and vision on display were extraordinary. Kudos to all who participated, and congratulations to the four honoured finalists.”

Tāmaki Makaurau-based composer and educator Samuel Holloway’s nominated work, Soft Logic, was written for pianist Stephen De Pledge. It represents Samuel’s second nomination for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, following his first in 2011 for Sillage. On Soft Logic, he writes, “this piece arose from several compositional preoccupations: states of affective ambiguity and equivocation; tensions between system and intuition, accumulation and development; and the simple play of musical relations: why does this thing follow that?”

Following his 2025 nomination for the award for Drift Aspect, Dylan Lardelli’s Light Lines is a work for string trio that builds emerging fragile lines out of ever-shifting invisible foundations. An active performer and advocate for contemporary New Zealand music, Dylan has commissioned more than 40 new works and presented concerts and recordings throughout New Zealand and internationally. Light Lines is inspired by a quote from Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, “The fairest order in the world (the most beautiful kosmos) is a heap of random sweepings.” In the work, unity is finally created as a sum of the continuously changing parts presented by the three musicians. Listen to Light Lines by Dylan Lardelli.

2025 SOUNZ Contemporary Award winner Ihlara McIndoe receives her third nomination for the award with her work curio for voice and chamber orchestra. The work explores the act of holding and examining one’s own heart within a specimen jar. Musically, it presents itself as an ephemeral journey through different soundscapes where solo instruments emerge from one another and gradually become more intertwined. Graphic score instructions from the composer can be interpreted in a number of ways by the performers, and the vocal part features much fragmentation of words, audible breaths, and microtonal inflections. Listen to curio by Ihlara McIndoe.

Co-composed by Michael Norris and Nicholas Denton Protsack, Partial Forms is an hour-long auditory expedition for cello and live electronics. The eight-movement work moves through the shifting terrains of sound and space, and is shaped by themes, textures, and gestures drawn from the natural landscapes and soundscapes of Aotearoa as well as Nicholas’ home country of Canada. It blends precomposed and improvised elements, often drawing its pitch structures from the naturally occurring overtones of the harmonic series. The work exists as both an album of fixed electronic tracks in which Nicholas is overdubbed as many as 32 times; and as a version for live solo cello, electronics and video. Listen to Partial Forms by Michael Norris and Nicholas Denton Protsack.

On the naming of finalists for this year’s award, SOUNZ Chief Executive Hannah Darroch says:

“It’s always exciting to see which works appear as finalists for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award Te Tohu Auaha. Aotearoa’s composers are doing amazing things both here locally and overseas, and it’s wonderful to be able to celebrate their creative work in a wider industry setting through the APRA Silver Scrolls. I send SOUNZ’s congratulations to the finalists, along with my respect for every applicant in the very competitive line-up this year – there is much for us all to celebrate and to be proud of.”

The winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award Te Tohu Auaha will be announced at the 2026 APRA Silver Scroll Awards Kaitito Kaiaka to be held at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland on Wednesday 14 October, as part of the celebrations of APRA’s 100th birthday happening throughout the year.

The SOUNZ Contemporary Award Te Tohu Auaha recognises New Zealand compositions demonstrating outstanding levels of creativity and inspiration, and has been presented in collaboration with APRA AMCOS NZ since 1998. Read more about the award and its past winners and finalists, and explore their works here.

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