Sarah-Grace Williams explains how The Metropolitan Orchestra is aiming to launch the careers of eight Aussie composers.

World premieres are an attractive thing for orchestras to programme, but a second performance is generally a lot harder to secure. Having conducted many world premieres over the years, I often feel that by the end of the rehearsal period many works would benefit from being further finessed rather than going straight to performance. It’s a shame when the piece feels underdone before its premiere and the situation is particularly problematic with less experienced composers.

“Workshopping with orchestra is something many composers can never dream of doing“

Workshopping a piece with an orchestra is something many budding composers can never dream of doing, it is far too costly. I know many composers who are searching for that elusive break but find it a challenge to get their work up to a viable standard for submission to orchestra artistic administrators for potential programming.

To help redress these problems, The Metropolitan Orchestra has introduced an exciting new initiative to our calendar: TMO’s inaugural Composer Development Programme. In 2015 we won an Arts and Cultural Projects Grant through NSW Government and...