Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Australian Music Centre, together with Moogahlin Performing Arts, APRA AMCOS, the Australian National University School of Music and Ensemble Offspring, have launched a new initiative aimed at supporting and mentoring emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander composers in new music and jazz. A part of the new AMPlify framework of artist development programs, the Indigenous Composer Initiative will take place in NSW and ACT over 2016 and 2017.

The project aims at helping composers in establishing contacts, networks and relationships with role models, and engaging in knowledge exchange and learning. The focus of the initiative is to identify Indigenous composers not yet properly represented or heard across new art music and jazz, and support them in creating works of new Indigenous music in score format. This in turn will help to create new opportunities, in new contexts, for Indigenous people: e.g. performance in new music events, schools repertoire, examination syllabi etc.

The project is seen as an important pilot, and has the capacity to develop into a national project, while at the same time maintaining important local connections and making use of funding opportunities provided by States and local communities. We are very grateful to APRA AMCOS for its funding support for this initiative.

Facilitators and performers for the pilot project include composer Chris Sainsbury - also the driving force behind this initiative - and jazz pianist and educator Kevin Hunt, as well as performers from the Moogahlin Performing Arts and Ensemble Offspring. Four invited participants - students, emerging or established composers - will take part in the initiative, each producing up to four works for voice and/or small ensemble, of up to 15 minutes. The participants will receive individual guidance from the facilitators in developing their composition, notation and orchestration skills, as well as taking part in masterclasses and working closely with performers. There will be support available for typesetting and score production, and the final performance event will also involve a studio recording of the new works. Exploring further performance possibilities and publishing arrangements will also be a part of the scope of the pilot project.

Project partners for the Indigenous Composer Initiative are Moogahlin Performing Arts, Australian National University School of Music (SOM), APRA AMCOS, and the Australian Music Centre (AMC).

> More information about the AMPlify framework of artist development programs