Many alumni of the Australian Youth Orchestra’s prestigious composition program, hosted annually at National Music Camp (NMC), have forged diverse and successful careers and continue to shape the evolving canon of contemporary classical music in Australia and beyond.
As National Music Camp 2027 swiftly approaches with a new cohort of talented emerging composers, AYO is also looking back on the achievements of some of our previous composition participants.
Paul Stanhope (1997)
Perhaps the most well-known of AYO’s composition alumni, Paul Stanhope worked as a Residential Coordinator at National Music Camp 1998 before returning to AYO as a guest artist in 1999 for the Centenary of Federation Dinner at Parliament House, and as Composition Mentor at National Music Camp 2011.
Today, Paul Stanhope is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary classical composers. In 2004, he won the Toru Takemitsu Prize for his piece Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams. Throughout his career, he has been awarded eight APRA Art Music Awards and been nominated for seven more. Most recently, his 2025 piece Masagahar won the 2026 Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Choral.
Stanhope teaches as an Associate Professor of Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he also directs the SCM Chamber Choir. He also serves as Artistic Chair of the Australia Ensemble at the University of New South Wales.
Anne Cawrse (2006)
Anne Cawrse participated in the AYO Composition program while undertaking her PhD in Composition under Graeme Koehne at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, Adelaide, from which she graduated in 2008. Cawrse is now an acclaimed composer of acoustic solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal works, and casually lectures at the Elder Conservatorium. She returned to National Music Camp as Composition Mentor from 2021 to 2023.
In 2021, her work A Room of Her Own, commissioned and premiered by the Australian String Quartet, won both an APRA Art Music Award and the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. That same year, she received a South Australian Luminary Award for her contributions to education and composition. In August 2026, her piece Killing the Angel in the House won the 2026 Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Solo and Small Ensemble.
Since 2021, Anne Cawrse has co-curated the She Speaks festival in collaboration with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Elder Conservatorium of Music. She Speaks celebrates female composers and the diversity of music written by women.
Lachlan Skipworth (2007)
Lachlan Skipworth participated in AYO’s Composition program in the years between his Bachelor’s degree at the UWA Conservatorium of Music in Perth and his PhD at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was also during this period that he travelled to Japan for three years to study Shakuhachi, a style of bamboo end-blown flute.
In 2016, Lachlan Skipworth won the Paul Lowin Prize for his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, which also won the 2016 APRA Art Music Award for Performance of the Year and was chosen by ABC Classic for the 2016 International Rostrum of Composers in Poland. His 2017 piece Spiritus won the University of Melbourne’s Albert H. Maggs Award and the New England Philharmonic’s Annual Call for Scores Competition.
Lachlan Skipworth went on to win another APRA Art Music Award in 2023 for Pine Chart, a chamber piece written in collaboration with the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. He returned to National Music Camp in 2024 as Composition mentor.
Sally Greenaway (2014)
Sally Greenaway is a Canberra-based composer-pianist whose work spans solo instrumental, chamber and orchestral works, jazz big band works, film, advertising and documentary music. She studied jazz piano at the Australian National University School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and has since returned to both institutions as a lecturer, in addition to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
In 2017, Greenaway won the APRA Art Music ACT Award for Instrumental Work of the Year with her piece The 7 Great Inventions of the Modern Industrial Age. Her most recent project Across the Fields, recorded with violist and ABC Classic host Ed le Brocq and released in July 2026, reflects Greenaway’s relationship with music after her long COVID diagnosis.
Nick Wales (2001)
Nick Wales is an electronic classical composer whose work spans multiple genres and mediums including popular and classical music, contemporary dance, film, theatre and the visual arts. He studied undergraduate music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Screen Composition at the Australian Film and Television School.
Wales’ recent commissions include Sydney Dance Company, the Powerhouse Museum, Audible and Shaun Parker and Company. His film and TV credits includeTrue Spirit (Netflix), Around the Block, Step into Paradise (Blakfella films / ABC), The Lost Diggers of Fromelles (Channel 4 UK), Bird Nerd: The Art of Leila Jeffreys (ABC), Hannah Gadsby’s Nakedy Nudes (ABC) and Nothing to Lose (SBS).
Abigail Lui (2024)
National Music Camp 2024 alumna Abigail Lui will have her work Aerial Dances premiered internationally in 2027 when the AYO Symphonists ensemble travel to Singapore. Currently participating in the second AYO Momentum Leaders project, Abigail has recently won Best Contemporary Classical Music at the 2026 Queensland Music Awards for her piece Memory in the Distant Hills with the Queensland Chamber Orchestra.
“I was quite surprised myself,” Abigail said. “It’s nice as an emerging composer to have your work recognised in that way, especially since that project was so personally rewarding.”
Abigail also placed 58th on the Herald Sun’s Most Influential People in Queensland Arts and Entertainment list, alongside icons like Bluey, Margot Robbie and Robert Irwin. “It’s very exciting for someone walking out of university,” she said.
2025 CoLAB Cohort
On Friday 14 August, National Music Camp Composition program alumni Thomas Misson (AYO 2019), Robert McIntyre (AYO 2021), Beth Roche and Jessie Leov (AYO 2025) premiered their new works as part of Omega Ensemble’s CoLAB: Composer Accelerator Program showcase ‘New Now’.
The 2025 Composition cohort are already forging varied and expansive careers in the Australian classical music scene and beyond. In July, alumna Beth Roche travelled to Ede, Netherlands, where she participated in the Cortana Sessions for New Music. In 2025, she took part in Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy.
“National Music Camp with the Australian Youth Orchestra was such a fun experience,” Beth said. “I learned a lot from mentor Jess Wells, and met some wonderful people, many of whom I’m still in contact with today.”
“The experience I gained at camp and the excellent quality recording I got for my portfolio there have been pivotal to my development as a composer.”
Beth Roche (AYO Composition 2025)
Jessie Leov had her European premiere this May when her work convergency was programmed for the ISCM World New Music Days festival in Bucharest, Romania. She is also a current participant of the Australian Composer’s School and workshopped two new pieces with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in July. Following her Omega Ensemble premiere in August, Jessie is headed to New York to begin her PhD in Music Composition at Stony Brook University, where she expects to graduate in 2031.
Paul Nicolaou (2022)
Harpist and composer Paul Nicolaou wrote his piece but the sky is surely open at National Music Camp 2022. In 2026, this work will have its world premiere when the Sydney Youth Orchestras embark on their International Tour across Europe. “A full circle moment,” Paul said. “Totally surreal feeling and enormous privilege.”
At National Music Camp, Pau Nicolaou was mentored by AYO alumna Anne Cawrse. “The opportunity to work with performers at the calibre of the National Music Camp tutors was unmatched to anything I’d encountered previously,” Paul said, “and the experience has led to ongoing professional relationships with many of those artists, sparking exciting new projects and collaboration, as well as an ongoing mentor relationship with my AYO tutor Anne Cawrse.”
“In many ways, AYO’s Composition program kickstarted my professional career as a composer.”
Paul Nicolaou (AYO Composition 2022)
In 2026, Paul has won an APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award in the Screen Composition category and been announced as one of the 2026-27 ANAM Set Composers alongside fellow AYO composition alumni Jessie Leov (AYO 2025), Jakob Bragg (AYO 2015), Lewis Ingham (AYO 2021) and Sophie van Dijk (AYO 2020). This August, he embarks on the national solo tour Elemental Resonance.
Chris Williams (2010)
Chris Williams, who participated in the National Music Camp Composition program in 2010, was recently named recipient of the APRA AMCOS 2026 Art Music Fund for his new choral work Illuminations, inspired by the life of poet William Blake. Illuminations will be performed in 2027 by UK choral group Sansara.
Chris Williams is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Oxford, where he completed his Master’s degree in Composition. Throughout his career, Williams has been commissioned to write major works for Carnegie Hall, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and The Song Company.
Michael Grebla (2018)
Michael Grebla is a Western Australian composer currently based in New York City. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Western Australia in both mechanical engineering and music, before emigrating to complete his Master’s degree in Music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
In 2024, Grebla was commissioned by the Australian Government to compose his piece Unbreakable in celebration of the one year anniversary of the new Embassy of Australia in Washington DC. The piece has since also been choreographed by the Australian Ballet.
Moses Mohammed Kington-Walberg (2024)
Moses Mohammed Kington-Walberg is a Victorian composer currently based in Finland as Artist-in-Residence for Taidetila Muijala. In April 2026, he was announced as one of Ensemble Offspring’s four Hatched Composers for its intensive program. His new work will be premiered in November 2026 in the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room.
Madeleine Hammond (2025)
Following her time at National Music Camp 2025, Madeleine Hammond took part in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program. Her new work Stellify was premiered by MSO on 24 January 2026.
“If you are a young aspiring composer, this program is a transformative experience that will allow you to hear your imagination be brought to life.”
Madeleine Hammond (AYO Composition 2025)
“The opportunity to work with some of Australia’s most renowned music makers, in a supportive and inspiring environment makes the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp Composition Course one of the most important stepping stones in a young composer’s career,” Madeleine said.
Want updates on the 2027 Composition cohort?
Find out more about the National Music Camp Composition program:
Composition
New work by emerging composers is performed by professional orchestral musicians at National Music Camp.
