Katia Beaugeais has won the 2010 ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award.

Katia Beaugeais, a French-Australian composer and saxophonist based in Sydney, is the winner of this year's ISCM-IAMIC special award for young composers with her work, Sound Box (2008) for soprano saxophone.

The award, inaugurated in 2002, is presented each year to a selected composer under 35 whose work is featured in the annual ISCM World New Music Days Festival which took place this year from 30 April to 9 May in Sydney. The prize consists of a special commission of €2000 to write a new work to be premiered at an international event in 2011.

Commenting on Beaugeais' composition which was chosen from 43 entries, the judges said: 'This work demonstrates an imaginative and idiomatic use of the soprano saxophone. The musical landscape of the piece transcends the limitations of the instrument, and her technical expertise bodes well for future works.' The panel consisted of musicologist Andreas Engström (Sweden), and composers Stephen Lias (USA), Emilio Mendoza (Venezuela), Young-Eun Paik (Korea), and Peter Swinnen (Belgium).

The Prize is a commission from the University of Sydney and Professor Kim Walker, Dean and Principal, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, under the Vice-Regal patronage of the Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The new work will be promoted through the ISCM network, and through IAMIC, the International Association of Music Information Centres.

The ISCM World New Music Days 2011 will take place from 7 to 17 April within the 26th Music Biennale Zagreb in Croatia. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2010.