Percy Brier Memorial Prize
- Enrolment status
- Current UQ student
- Student type
- Domestic, International
- Study level
- Undergraduate
- Study area
- Arts, humanities and social sciences
- Scholarship focus
- Creative excellence
- Scholarship value
- Income from the endowment fund.
- Scholarship duration
- 1 year
- Number awarded
- 1
- Applications open
- 20 January 2025
- Applications close
- 28 April 2025
Eligibility
You're eligible if you:
- are an enrolled student
- your composition style/genre submission meets the conditions for the year, set by the Head of School of Music.
How to apply
Apply using the online application form. You will need to provide:
- details of the work you propose to perform
- a short bio.
Use our tips for putting together a great application to help you through this process.
Selection criteria
We'll consider:
- musical effectiveness: how well musical resources are used to create an engaging, expressive and/or surprising musical result
- creativity: how individual and distinctive the music is, and how well new or individual ideas are realised
- technical achievement: how idiomatic the music for the instruments is, how clearly and professionally the score is presented.
2025 Composition Details
An overture with a duration of 4 to 5 minutes, to be performed at the same concert as the Gloria by Francis Poulenc and Symphony No. 5 by Dimitri Shostakovich. Your composition must use the same scoring as the other pieces.
Premiere and Conducting
The composed piece will be premiered at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) concert on Sunday 21 September 2025 and conducted by Professor Paul Dean.
Submission Due Date
Your completed composition is due on Monday 16 June 2025.
What happens next
We'll send you an email to let you know when we've received your application. If you have not received an email within 2 days of applying, email us at concerts@uq.edu.au.
About this scholarship
Percy Brier (1885-1970) was born in Queensland and studied at Trinity College and the Royal Academy of Music. He was a Brisbane-based organist, choral director, composer, music teacher and music historian in a professional career that began in 1906 and extended for more than six decades.
More information about Percy is available in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Following his death, his son Eric Brier provided a gift to establish a prize in his memory for composition of greatest promise.