MSO Managing Director Sophie Galaise recognised for Game Changing Leadership at the 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s first female Managing Director, Sophie Galaise has been announced as a finalist for the inaugural ARIA Executive Leader Game Changer Award, a new category in the 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA).
The Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) celebrate women working in the creative field as musicians, producers, executives, engineers, music journalists and more. AWMA was established in 2018 by founding Executive Producer Vicki Gordon to address the chronic gender inequality across the full spectrum of the Australian Music Industry.
The Game Changer Award recognises the exceptional leadership of an Executive leader who creates significant and positive change to bring about equality for women in the Australian music industry. It honours women in leadership who have shown vision, integrity/ethics, trust of co-workers/employees, in addition to driving positive industry change, longevity of commitment, prioritising gender equality, respect, inclusion, safety, empowerment and quality of work.
MSO Chairman David Li praised Galaise’s leadership and support for gender equality, representation and diversity.
“Under Sophie Galaise, the MSO became the first professional Australian orchestra to join the Keychange movement in early 2020,” says Li. The Keychange international campaign invests in emerging talent and aims to achieve a 50:50 gender balance pledge across the music industry.
“Sophie has been a champion of female players, conductors, composers and musicians, through a suite of successful programming and development initiatives,” Li continued. “Her support of female arts workers off the stage has seen the rise of many women within the MSO administration as well”.
Throughout September and October, the MSO will present the world premieres of three new mainstage works by Australian female composers: 2023 Composer in Residence, Mary Finsterer; Cybec Young Composer in Residence, Melissa Douglas; and Elena Kats-Chernin. MSO First Nations Creative Chair, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO will also return to Hamer Hall for the encore performance of her 2021 composition Eumeralla, A War Requiem for Peace.
The 2023 Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) will be hosted at a ceremony and performance on 27 September in Brisbane, to be later aired on ABC TV.