The ABC has announced the recipients of its inaugural composer commissioning fund, with 15 grants awarded totalling $90,000. The commissions will support a diverse range of voices and themes, including female, Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, and LGBTQI+ composers.

Eric Avery. Photograph © Matthew Lorenzon/ABC Classic

The ten new commissions for ABC Classic were awarded to:

• composer and world music expert Brent Keogh;
• First Nations violinist and emerging composer Eric Avery, who will collaborate with Ensemble Offspring;
• The Titjikala Womens’ Choir, which will work with Northern Territory singer/songwriter Nancy Bates and pianist/electrical cristal player Gabriella Smart;
• concert, film and game music composer Christine Pan, who will write for harpist Kate Moloney;
• violinist Camille Barry and composer-producer Thomas Green;
• composer Heather Percy, who will collaborate with Sydney Chamber Choir and its Artistic Director Sam Allchurch;
• composer Elizabeth Younan, who will draw on her Lebanese heritage;
• Tasmanian composer and musician Emily Sheppard who will collaborate with singer-songwriter Claire Anne Taylor;
• composer-performer Henry Liang;
• and composer Meta Cohen, who will write for choral group Divisi Chamber Singers.

The cross-cultural collaborations will feature familiar classical and jazz instruments alongside the Arabic Oud, Japanese Shō, Chinese pipa, banjo, harmonium and electrical cristal.

The recipients were selected...