19 September 2025
From camp to Carnegie: Composers join AMC’s Momentum Plus line-up
Congratulations to AYO composition alumni Chris Williams and Paul Nicolaou and AYO composition tutor Anne Cawrse on their selection for the Australian Music Centre’s Momentum Plus recording initiative.
The musicians were three of 12 Australian composers chosen to have one of their existing orchestral works recorded for the first time.
The works will be recorded at Trackdown Studios in Sydney later this month. Celebrating the AMC’s 50th birthday this year, MOMENTUM Plus allows for AMC-represented composers to have a completed work (or excerpt) under 5 minutes in length recorded. The works, recordings and scores will be made available from the AMC collection.
Award-winning Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse is renowned for her acoustic solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal works and was the AYO Composition tutor at National Music Camp from 2021 to 2023. She will see her 2022 piece composed for wind ensemble, Sunburst, recorded as part of the Momentum project. Commissioned by the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association (ABODA) SA, the piece was premiered by the Elder Conservatorium Wind Orchestra in 2023 at Elder Hall.
Sydney-based harpist, composer and member of AYO Momentum Ensemble 2025, Paul Nicolaou, will have his work Catasterismi recorded as part of the project. AYO alum Paul has previously participated in over ten Australian Youth Orchestra performance programs, and was the inaugural Co-Chair of the AYO Youth Council.
He has gained international recognition as a creative and virtuosic young artist, receiving numerous accolades including First Prize in the 2023 National Youth Music Arranging Competition, the 2024 ABC Classic Composer Commissioning Fund, 2021 Monash University Emerging Composer Prize, Most Outstanding Performer Award at the 2022 Sydney Harp Eisteddfod and was a winner of the 2022 Artology ‘Fanfare’ Competition. He was also a finalist in the 2025 APRA Professional Development Awards under the Screen Composition category, and received the Highly Commended Award in Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 Young Composer Competition.
Renowned composer Chris Williams’ music for the stage and concert hall has been heard and commissioned around the world, from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall. A participant in the AYO Composition program in 2010, Chris is a graduate of The Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Oxford, and is currently pursuing his PhD in composition at Duke University. His 2023 work swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim for string quartet will be recorded for the project.
“We are so pleased to be partnering with Music Australia to deliver recordings of large-scale orchestral works,” said AMC CEO Catherine Haridy.
“We recognise that recordings are critical for composers to promote their works and connect with audiences globally. The calibre of submissions for MOMENTUM Plus this year was incredibly strong, with the 12 selected composers standing out for their originality, clarity of vision and bold artistic voices.”
The composers are Adam Manning (Beethoven No. 5 Reimagined), Alex Turley (Reverie in Shifting Textures), Anne Cawrse (Sunburst), Catherine Likhuta (The Last Flight Out), Chris Williams (swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim), John Rotar (Kingfisher Dreaming), Leah Blankendaal (Music for a Sleeping City), Luna Pan (First Light), Lyle Chan (Sinfonietta), Me-Lee Hay (Gold-Finale), Paul Nicolaou (Catasterismi) and Suzanne Kosowitz (dance again).