The 2026 composers are: Robert McIntyre (VIC), Jessie Leov (NZ), Thomas Misson (TAS) and Beth Roche (NSW).

About the program

The CoLAB: Composer Accelerator Program offers a unique opportunity for early-to-mid career composers to obtain direct industry experience in collaboration with Omega Ensemble and under the mentorship of leading Australian and international composers.

Open to participants from all around Australia, this selective program is suited to talented composers with highly-developed compositional skills, a strong artistic voice and clear career ambitions.

The program aims to accelerate participants across a nine-month practice-based mentorship, developing a substantial new chamber work through intensive studio and digital workshops.

Previous mentors have included Nigel Westlake, Nico Muhly, Elena Kats-Chernin, Carl Vine, Missy Mazzoli, Christopher Cerrone, Holly Harrison and Graeme Koehne.

The program concludes with the annual New Now industry showcase with each participant presenting their works to an audience of invited industry guests, supporters and our music-loving community.

The CoLAB program is generously supported by the Darin Cooper Foundation, Sally and Geoffrey White, Mark Wakely in memory of Steven Alward, John Claudianos and Julianne Maxwell.

New string quartet ‘Bushfire Skies’ (with correlating string orchestra arrangements) commissioned by Flinders Quartet with support from FQ Syndicate #8

REGIONAL CONNECTIONS

FQ Pathways is committed to nurturing chamber music beyond metropolitan centres.

The highlight of 2026 will be the premiere of Robert McIntyre’s work Bushfire Skies, commissioned by FQ Syndicate #8. Flinders Quartet will work side by side with Resonance String Orchestra players and tutors, offering regional audiences a first-hand encounter with living Australian music.

Two Australian works have been programmed for the 2025 ISCM - International Society for Contemporary Music World New Music Days: Robert McIntyre’s 'A Sea Spray of Ash' (2019) for soprano and piano, and Dan Walker's 'Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?' (2022) for youth choir.

Both works were submitted for consideration through the Australian Section selection, announced in April this year alongside 4 others, and from which one work was guaranteed a selection.

The 2025 World New Music Days, hosted by Miso Music Portugal, will take place from 30 May to 7 June in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. The program will feature approximately 120 works across 20 concerts, performed by some of Portugal's finest musicians across this annual celebration of new music. More info.

***This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

2024 PARTICIPANTS & NEW MSO COMMISSIONS BY: Andrew Aronowicz, Zinia Chan, Robert McIntyre and Rachel Meyers

Since its commencement in 2003, The Cybec Foundation has generously supported the MSO’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program.

Widely regarded as one of the nation’s pioneering and preeminent professional development opportunities for emerging Australian composers, the year-long program selects four participants who are individually mentored by a leading Australian composer and commissioned by the Orchestra to compose a 10-minute piece. The resulting four pieces are performed by the MSO in a public showcase event, following which, one participant is selected as the MSO’s Young Composer in Residence and commissioned to write further works.

About the fellowship & Meet Cohort 2

The Wattle Fellowship is the University of Melbourne’s flagship co-curricular program dedicated to cultivating leadership for global sustainability. Grounded in the principles of transformative leadership, multidisciplinary collaboration, and practical action, the Fellowship empowers students to develop the capabilities needed to create lasting, positive change in their communities and beyond.

Over the course of a year, Wattle Fellows engage in an immersive learning journey that includes retreats, workshops, events, mentoring, and the opportunity to design and implement a sustainability-focused Action Project. Fellows join a vibrant community of like-minded peers and professionals, united by a shared commitment to building a more just, regenerative and sustainable world.

2022 PARTICIPANTS: Christine Pan, Robert McIntyre, Christopher Alan Schmitz, Heather Allis Koehn, Virginia Wan, Leslie Hogan, Iddo Aharony and Joseph C Phillips Jr.

Composing in the Wilderness is offered by the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in collaboration with Alaska Geographic and the National Park Service.  It is led by wilderness-focused composer Stephen Lias.

Working with experienced guides, naturalists, and scientists, we take composers into the backcountry of Alaska's wilderness and provide them with an intense and immersive adventure. With this as their inspiration, the composers then have the opportunity to compose original music that is premiered by top-notch contemporary music performers on staff at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (and other ensembles).

Explore the inspiring wilderness of Alaska's backcountry, compose music about it, and have it premiered by top performers.

2021 PARTICIPANTS: Robert McIntyre, Lewis Ingham, Aaron Pelle, Ben Robinson and Isabella Gerometta.

Energise your craft within a hive of inspiration in this two-week musical immersion. Compositional growth is our goal, and participants will together explore techniques, styles and processes in creating music that demands to be played and heard. Your resulting composition will be rehearsed and performed by the musicians and tutors of the AYO National Music Camp orchestral program with guidance from one of Australia’s leading composers.

As a composition participant you’ll work with a leading Australian composer to create a new work for performance by AYO’s experienced instrumental tutors.

PARTICIPATED IN 2021 Iteration in Vienna, Austria.

ICEBERG Institute is a two-week composition intensive led by ICEBERG New Music composers and featuring a variety of guest faculty and performing artists each year. Participants receive rigorous individual instruction from world-class faculty members, hear their music performed in a public concert, and receive high-quality audio and video documentation of their work.

The ten composers of ICEBERG New Music are committed to exploring every boundary of contemporary concert music. They are acclaimed composers and distinguished educators who have collaborated with some of the world's foremost contemporary ensembles and performers, and heard their music performed across five continents. As a collective, ICEBERG has presented concerts across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Their first album, a collaboration with acclaimed pianist Jenny Lin, was released in 2018 by Sono Luminus Records. ICEBERG New Music has produced over 40 concerts of new music since 2016, encompassing more than 200 world premieres.

Program participants: Robert McIntyre, Meta Cohen, Ariel Bonnell and Lore Burns.

“Compose Queer is an initiative to empower young queer composers. We have sourced four composers, providing them with a paid opportunity to compose for Divisi Chamber Singers and Sally Whitwell. At the heart of this project is the composers themselves. We want to give them the opportunity to write a new piece in a professional context, working with one of Australia’s leading musicians and a live ensemble. The first workshop took place in March 2020, and the first concert was in February 2021. Seeing the success of this program, we have decided to continue the Compose Queer initiative as part of our Ensemble’s core goals. As such, we will launch our debut album in March 2022 of the commissions from the original concert season and an addition work by Caerwen Martin.”