AWARDS A KICK START FOR YOUNG WRITERS

Six young songwriters from different genres have each received an award of $10,000 plus travel from the APRA under its 2004 Professional Development Award (PDA) program.

The PDA winners were announced at a ceremony held the Trackdown Scoring Stage at Fox Studios on Monday, 8 March 2004.

Winners were selected in five categories: Popular Contemporary, Classical, Country, Jazz, and Film and Television. The winners were:

Mia Dyson (Vic)	- Popular Contemporary
Vassy Karagiorgos (NT)	- Popular Contemporary
Tamara O'Brien (NSW)	- Film and Television
Mace Francis (WA)	- Jazz
Dianna Corcoran (NSW)	- Country
Christoper Tonkin (WA)	- Classical

APRA CEO Brett Cottle said, "All six winners have demonstrated outstanding skill and potential in their field. The PDAs will provide a kick-start to the careers of these highly talented young writers".

The winners must use the cash and travel opportunity to further their careers through study, co-writing engagements or other relevant activities.

The six winners were chosen from over 300 applications received from around Australia. A stringent selection process that involved music organisations in each state, culminated in 117 applications being considered for the six grants on offer.

A highly respected and experienced judging panel, made up of the Australian music industry's top songwriters, selected the final six. Judges included cutting edge contemporary music songwriters and performers such as paulmac and Nfa Forster-Jones (1200 Techniques); film composer David Hirschfelder; country icon Garth Porter; jazz pianist and composer Judy Bailey; and classical composers Richard Meale and Nigel Westlake.

The PDAs were set up in 2001 to mark APRA's 75th anniversary. They are offered every two years and are open to all Australian or New Zealand writers, as part of APRA's commitment to supporting and sustaining the creative life of the Australasian music community.

Past winners have included award winning screen composer, Michael Yezerski and up and coming country writer and artist, Tamara Stewart. Stewart used her Award to network successfully in Australia and overseas. Shortly after she scored a publishing contract with Universal and, later, a recording contract with ABC Music. She's now released her new album, Song Girl.