Award-winning Tasmanian-based composer Maria Grenfell has been announced as the Composer-in-Residence at Australian Youth Orchestra’s 2027 National Music Camp.
Maria, who is Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music and works closely with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, will be heading the Composition Program at the two-week residential orchestral music camp in Adelaide from 11 to 24 January.
“It has been a long-standing wish of mine to be involved with the AYO at National Music Camp,” said Maria, who was born in Malaysia and completed her composition studies in Christchurch, New Zealand. “I was a violinist in the NZ National Youth Orchestra for five years when I was a student, and in recent years I’ve had a couple of pieces performed in other AYO programs but this time I will be involved for the whole two weeks in Adelaide and I’m very excited.”
During the two-week program, the selected Composition participants will be mentored by Maria as they each create a new work which will be performed in a public concert by experienced AYO NMC instrumental tutors. The NMC Composition Concert is a highlight of the NMC annual Summer Music Festival.
“It will be great to work with emerging composers and the range of fantastic ensembles who will play their music. The AYO provides some amazing opportunities for musicians in a range of musical roles and I can’t wait to meet them.”
Maria Grenfell
Maria’s work River Mountain Sky was performed at AYO National Music Camp in 2023 and AYO Symphonists in 2024. The AYO Brislan Chamber Orchestra performed Knitting Unicorns at NMC in 2024 and in 2021 AYO tutors performed her piece Dancing at the Camerata.
“Dancing at the Camerata was a commission from Fr Arthur Bridge in 2023 and two of the players in that brass quintet – Mark Bain and David Robins – are now permanent members of the TSO, having first met at NMC,” remembered Maria.
About Maria Grenfell
The music of Maria Grenfell has been described as “expansive, effusive and energetic”, “magic,” and “refreshingly groovy.” She was winner of the Tasmanian State Award for Ten Suns Ablaze in 2013, and Spirals in 2018 at the Australian Art Music Awards. Maria’s orchestral music has been commissioned, performed or recorded by all the Australian and New Zealand major symphony orchestras, as well as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and the Seattle Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the USA. Her chamber music is played around the world.
Born in Malaysia, Maria completed composition studies in Christchurch before undertaking further study in the USA. Now based in Hobart, Maria works closely with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as a mentor and composer. In 2013 she was Visiting Professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and in 2019 she was Kerr Composer in Residence at Oberlin Conservatory.
Maria’s first film score, for the documentary Quoll Farm (2021), was shortlisted for an Australian Screen Music Award, and her second documentary score Living with Devils (2023), about the Tasmanian Devil, was performed live by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in 2024. Her CD release River Mountain Sky was rated Editor’s Choice by Limelight Magazine in 2024. Maria is an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music. She is married to guitarist David Malone and they have two children.
About the AYO Composition Program
AYO Composition program is a two-week immersive residential program held at National Music Camp in Adelaide 11- 24 January 2027 for selected composers aged between 16 and 30.
Energise your craft within a hive of inspiration in this two-week musical immersion. Compositional growth is our goal, and participants will together explore techniques, styles and processes in creating music that demands to be played and heard. Your resulting composition will be rehearsed and performed by the musicians and tutors of the AYO National Music Camp orchestral program with guidance from one of Australia’s leading composers.
As a composition participant you’ll work with a leading Australian composer to create a new work for performance by AYO’s experienced instrumental tutors. They will act as a guide throughout the editing, feedback and rehearsal process to familiarise you with the requirements and conventions in these critical stages of bringing new work to life. Working closely with the performance tutors, you will spend the fortnight face-to-face with Australia’s greatest young instrumentalists, music journalists, sound engineers and administrators, building a lifetime of musical networks.