We are a retired couple of moderate means with a love of chamber music who decided that we would commission a new piece of music to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We had little idea of how to do this, or what a sensible amount of money might be for this; but we thought that a new work from a young composer would not cost too much. So we contacted the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and explained what we wanted – a chamber work of around five to 10 minutes written by one of their students.

CommissioningAmy Whyte, Kim Falconer, Pamela and Neil Hardie, Harry Sdraulig and Eliza Sdraulig. Photo supplied

The Conservatorium put us in touch with Damien Ricketson, the Head of Composition. He gave us a link to Matthew Hindson’s website which discusses typical costs for commissions from various levels of composers, from emerging composers to premium composers.

Damien also circulated our request among the other teachers of composition to ask who they would recommend; they came up with two suggestions, and proposed that we listen to some of their works on the web. We did that, and decided that although we liked...