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For Queensland composer, violinist and AYO alumna Abigail Lui, storytelling is the beating heart that drives her musical writing. Here 2026 AYO Media and Communication Fellow Amanda Wong speaks to Abigail ahead of her involvement in the AYO Momentum Leaders project with NIDA and the Flying Fruit Fly Circus.

Abigail Lui has been soaring to new heights with a string of musical successes (on top of her busy schedule in medical studies): She was recently named in the Herald Sun’s list of top influential Queensland people in the arts and entertainment, and last year finished her composition residency with Camerata, Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra.

Next week Abigail is returning to AYO’s Momentum Leaders, with the multi-disciplinary project kicking off in Sydney. Abigail was one of nine participants in the inaugural 2025 Momentum Leaders pilot project. This year Momentum Leaders is a collaboration between AYO and Arts 8 partners Flying Fruit Fly Circus and NIDA and is supported by the Ian Potter Foundation and Abigail has been invited back to participate.

The program is designed to nurture the next generation of creative leaders, with participants from Arts8 organisations collaborating across their respective disciplines to create new works under the guidance and insight of industry professionals. This year’s mentors include performer/composer Erkki Veltheim, artistic director Marshall McGuire and theatre director David Berthold.

Held across three in-person workshop periods in Sydney and Melbourne, this year’s Momentum Leaders brings together three AYO participants – Abigail, bassoonist Bailey Ireland and trumpeter Arkie Moore – with circus artist Arabella Renwick and director Madeleine Diggins to develop a multi-disciplinary artistic performance which will be premiered at Circus Centre Melbourne in November.

Abigail said she is looking forward to returning to Momentum Leaders. “It will be similar, but also different with a smaller group this year,” she says, adding that she is most excited about collaborating with a wider range of disciplines, particularly circus performance. For her, the possibilities are endless.

“Working with a colleague in circus arts means that there will be movement and having a director on the team means that movement and stage set up will be part of the project right from the beginning. It will be interesting then to see how we’re all involved in making the project and how it will bring it into exciting new directions as well.”

From NMC to Momentum Leaders

Abigail’s involvement with AYO “came at a pivotal point in time” in her artistic journey. Her first encounter with AYO was not as a composer, but as a violinist in the 2023 National Music Camp. This experience gave her a uniquely informed perspective when she returned as a composition participant the following year. “It was really cool to have those two sides of it” she shared. This continued blend as a performer/composer came into play whens she participated in the Momentum Leaderspilot program in 2025.

Abigail spoke particularly fondly of her early Momentum Leaders experience and credits the program for preparing her for a sustainable career. “I really appreciate AYO seeing that that was what I wanted to do with my music making and then resourcing me with the skills and opportunities to be able to do that.”

Learning new skills

The Momentum Leaders pilot program not only pushed Abigail artistically through collaboration with other art forms, but taught practical skills and answered burning questions such as: “how do you get a project off the ground? How do you apply for grants? How do you make yourself sustainable as an artist? How do you manage a team? How do you make those kind of decisions and work with deadlines? How do you put together a budget? How do you work in a cross-disciplinary manner with people across the arts – and beyond the arts – as well to make cool things and make things for the good and the nourishment of people in Australia and beyond?”

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

For Abigail, the cross-disciplinary collaborative experience offered through Momentum Leaders was eye-opening to say the least.

“It was cool for me to see how people in other areas of the arts engage with their practice and the exercises they use and the way they understand sound and space [because it] is different for us, as classical musicians.”

“It was really cool because there are things we [as classical musicians] do, and we might walk on stage and not necessarily consider”. For her, working with people in a drama and directing space, has opened up possibilities in terms of thinking about physicality, movement and freedom. “I think that it’s definitely given me more food for thought and I get so much out of collaboration”

Abigail has always been fascinated and inspired by stories that make sense of the world around her, and in exploring and telling those stories through her writing. For her, Momentum Leaders is the perfect way to continue exploring and developing from her love for collaboration and to continue telling important stories in innovative and meaningful ways.

“Storytelling is a really big part of my work. I think in the arts, we often have rationales for why we write the things we write,” she explained, “and for me, that sharing of human experience and that drilling down into the specificities of people’s lived experiences is really important and recognising people’s dignity and the dignity of the stories and the place they live.”