Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Back in 2016 a partnership led by Dr Christopher Sainsbury was forged between The Australian National University (ANU), the Australian Music Centre, Moogahlin Performing Arts and Ensemble Offspring. Little did we know at the time that this new program would fundamentally change the way we think about making music, listening and 'the hang'.

Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers was an ambitious new program created to support First Nations composers and give them an opportunity to step sideways into a new world of contemporary classical chamber music. John Davis, then AMC CEO, invited Ensemble Offspring to be the Ensemble in Residence and at first I recall being somewhat trepidatious about the way a program like this would come across and indeed whether it was even right for us 'white people' to be working in this way with First Nations musicians. But as trust developed and our motives for being involved were proven we found that the reciprocal knowledge and skills sharing was huge and indeed it was us white fellas who had more to learn and even gain from the program than those that it was set up for.

Image: Ngarra-Burria original group (supplied)

The program name Ngarra-Burria literally means "to listen, to sing" in the Dharug language of Ngarra-Burria director Dr Christopher Sainsbury. Listening has been at the heart of the program from the beginning - not simply listening to music, but listening to people, Country and stories.

Over the past decade, we have worked alongside deadly composers including Elizabeth Sheppard, Rhyan Clapham, Nardi Simpson, Troy Russell and Mark Munk Ross, helping bring their music to audiences across Australia and the world. We have commissioned, premiered and recorded more than 50 new works, developed First Nations led shows and prioritised integration of these works into our core programming with the support of our First Nations Directors.

As an evolution of Ngarra-Burria, in 2020 Ensemble Offspring established our First Nations Composer in Residence position which is a 2-year program for composers to develop their own bespoke project. Brenda Gifford was the inaugural First Nations Composer in Residence, and in 27-28 it will be Nicole Smede, who will be curating our 2027 NAIDOC Week Concert and Panel at The Church on 6 July and developing an exciting new work which will feature her on voice.

Perhaps the most important thing we have learned through Ngarra-Burria is that there is no single way to approach First Nations music creation, just as there is no single First Nations musical voice. Yes, their music is connected through the reflection of country in many instances, however each composer brings their own prior musical experience which ranges from jazz, folk, hip hop and choral music and of course their own experiences of colonialisation and the trauma of that.

The partnership has taken us well beyond the concert hall. We have shared music with communities in Brewarinna, worked with a huge range of First Nations musicians, toured regionally, to capital cities and internationally and developed new modes of collaboration. We have also been challenged to think differently about time: to allow relationships to develop slowly, to spend time on Country, and to understand that meaningful collaboration cannot always be fitted neatly into an outcome driven schedule - as Dr Chris Sainsbury says, it's about the hang.

Image: Ensemble offspring, The Gathering 2025, composer panel. Photo by Stephen Wilson Barker

Some other important milestones have been the release of our 2022 album entitled To Listen To Sing with ABC Classic and it being nominated for an ARIA Award. The same year Ngarra-Burria received international recognition when it won the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award, acknowledging the program's innovative approach to collaboration.

Now, in 2026, Ensemble Offspring is celebrating ten years as Ensemble in Residence for Ngarra-Burria and is stepping down from the program after an amazing decade. The greatest legacy is not simply the completely fresh catalogue of music that has been created, it is the long-term relationships, the trust and the shared musical language that have grown throughout the decade.

For Ensemble Offspring, Ngarra-Burria has been a lesson in what can happen when you stop asking what the future of Australian music should look like and commit to being part of the doing of it, in collaboration with the First People of our country. But now it's time for a new chapter...

To celebrate 10 years of Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers, join Ensemble Offspring and for a 'best of' Ngarra-Burria Gala concert on Wednesday 28 October in Sydney (Gadigal).

The 2026 Burranbala Team