Prize Winners Concert – Presented by UQ School of Music

The UQ School of Music presents the winning performances of students competing in the Sleath String Performance Prize, Burnett William Wendorf Memorial Prize for Classical Piano and the Ethel Osborn Prize.

About the Prizes

Howard Fortnam Sleath (1899-1984) was well-known to instrumentalists throughout Australia for the excellence of his craftsmanship and skill as a maker of stringed instruments. In 1974 he donated a set of four instruments (two violins, a viola and a cello) to The University of Queensland Department of Music. Following his death, the University of Queensland received a bequest from Howard Sleath to assist the study of stringed instruments played with a bow. The annual Sleath String Performance Prize is one of the activities funded from that bequest.

Burnett William Wendorff (1896-1989) was an alumnus of UQ who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922. Following her death, his wife Eunice Shirley Wendorff provided a bequest in 2015 to establish a prize in his memory.

Ethel Osborn was a well-known operatic soprano with an international career who returned to Queensland in 1951 and became a part-time examiner in singing with the Department of Music at the University of Queensland from 1952 to 1962. Following her death, her husband John Gilmour provided a bequest in 1983 to establish a prize in her memory.