People Group: Emerging Composer-in-Residence

Michael is a violinist, violist, composer and teacher. He has proudly played as a violinist and violist in Camerata since 2007 and has written a number of arrangements and pieces for the ensemble. A particular highlight was being selected as Emerging Composer-in-Residence in 2016. This association resulted in the piece “Pieza de Paronella” which has been broadly performed by the ensemble. Michael continues to enjoy commissions for arrangements and original works for professional ensembles and school groups. These include collaborations with Flamenco Guitarist Andrew Veivers, Singer Lior, Black Square String Quartet and Brisbane’s Lord Mayors Christmas Carols. He enjoys a variety of performance modes and styles recently performing with comedian Bill Bailey, recording for the latest award-winning Bluey album, playing viola with The Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and violin with Black Square String Quartet. As a teacher, Michael has taught at The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and more recently at Brisbane Grammar and Brisbane Girls Grammar where he is The Coordinator of Strings.

Queensland Music Award winner Ray Lin is a versatile composer, arranger, conductor and orchestrator specialising in music for concert hall and screen. His music has been performed internationally in the US and China; and featured through a range of prestigious local, state and national venues and platforms in Australia, including QPAC, Brisbane City Hall, ABC ME, 4MBS Classic FM, Old Museum Concert Hall, QLD-GOMA and more. Ray’s music has been performed by the Queensland Pops Orchestra, Topology, Queensland Conservatorium Symphony and Wind orchestra, members from the Ba Ban Chinese Music Society of New York, Orchestral Naturalis (QCGU) and others.

As a composer and arranger, Ray has received many outstanding awards for his work. Ray won the Contemporary Classical Song of the Year prize at the 2020 Queensland Music Awards and received a 2022 David Blumberg Award from the American Society of Music Arrangers and composers (ASMAC). Ray reached semi-final in the 2020 Walter Hussey Composition Competition (UK) and received second place in the 2021 National Youth Arranging Competition hosted by Music Arrangers’ Guild Australia. Recently Ray was commissioned by the ABC to write and record a new work featuring both Western and Chinese instruments in 2023 as part of the ABC composer commission project.

Ray’s diverse compositions have been featured in a variety of concerts and events, the most notables including premiering his chamber piano concerto “Seasons of the Spring Rain” in New York featuring musicians from the Bard Conservatory, premiering his orchestral tribute “Waltz No.007” at the 2021 Brisbane Festival Film- Harmonic concert, premiered “The Royal Fanfare” performed by the Queensland Pops Orchestra, premiered two pieces in the “One World, One Family” 24-hour virtual concert hosted and broadcasted by Chinese CCTV, etc.

Ray holds a Bachelor of Music (in composition) with distinction from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, and he was a recipient of the Alan Lane Composition Award. Ray is currently undertaking the Master of Arts Screen: Music course at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Alexandra Mison (she/her) is a composer and pianist based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her compositional style is driven by emotive, lyrical melodies and she often finds herself drawing inspiration from nature and little moments in everyday life. She has composed works for a range of ensembles and instrumentations, including solo piano, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra, wind symphony and SATB choir. Her compositions have been premiered and performed by Vox Llinette, Queensland Youth Orchestra 3, QYO Wind Symphony, Pulse Chamber Orchestra and Sketch Ensemble, both in Australia and internationally. In 2022/23, Alexandra was a composer fellow for the Vox Camerata Choral Collective Residency Programme, through which her piece Nostalgia (for SATB) was premiered in Singapore in March 2023. She has also recently composed three new works for Queensland Youth Orchestras, as one of their 2023 composers-in-residence. In 2021, Alexandra was also awarded a Special Mention in the Australian Women’s Wind Band Composition Award. In addition to chamber and orchestral works, she has composed the original scores for two short films and contributed to the creation of new scores for the 1920’s silent films The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu, performed with Sketch Ensemble. Alexandra holds a Bachelor of Music (Honours)/Science from the University of Queensland, where she studied composition, under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Davidson, and physics.

Abigail Lui is a Brisbane-based composer and violinist inspired by the stories that help us make sense of the world. A recipient of ABC Classic’s Composer Commissioning Fund (2024) and winner of Adelaide Chamber Music School’s String Quartet Composition Prize (2022), she is fast gaining a reputation for bold and intuitive writing that’s equally lucid in concert hall and community.

2024 has seen her string quartet Colour of Time recorded by Amiti Quartet for ABC Classic, piano trio Wayfarers recorded by Cerulean Collective for release through Corella Recordings, and on the choral-music side, a new piece for Voices of Birralee inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s artistic practice, and lyric-writing commission composed in collaboration with Elena Kats-Chernin.

She has taken part in composition programs with the Australian Youth Orchestra (2024), Queensland Youth Orchestra (2023), Topology (2022-23), and Singapore-based choir Vox Camerata (2022-23). Her music has also been performed by Brisbane Chamber Choir, Lumens, Birralee Singers, and Vocal Australia, and she has written and performed music for films (Nosferatu and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

Abigail is studying composition with Robert Davidson and violin with Courtenay Cleary, and previously Adam Chalabi, through a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and Science at the University of Queensland. Her Honours research explores how violin performance knowledge can enrich compositional practice through personal study and collaboration.

Other composition mentors include Lachlan Skipworth, Paul Dean, Cameron Patrick, Nicole Murphy, Corrina Bonshek, and Erik Griswold. She is an Associate with the Australian Music Centre.

Alexander Voltz’s work takes inspiration from myth, politics and the historic.

His music has been performed and supported by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Queensland, Australian National Academy of Music, Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, Flinders Quartet, Australian Youth Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestras, The University of Queensland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and others.

He was a winner in Artology’s 2015 Fanfare Competition (Australia) and reached the semi-finals of the Bartok World Composition Competition (Hungary) in both 2018 and 2020. He was awarded The University of Queensland’s Prize for Composition in 2019 and 2021 and in 2022 placed second in the Harlow Chorus Young Composer Competition (United Kingdom). He lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Read Alexander’s program note for his composition, Central Highland Rounds (2022), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).

Christopher Healey is a composer of music for modern hearts and minds. Solo music to full-bodied orchestral scores. One-minute miniatures to 80-minute operas. Transfixingly tender to disturbingly macabre. Modern listeners are multi-dimensional and emotionally complex; contemporary art music should be the same.

Melbourne-based composer Christopher Healey holds a Bachelor of Music (Composition), Honours (Class I) from the University of Queensland. He has studied with renowned Australian composers Gerard Brophy and Robert Davidson. From 2018-2019, he also undertook further composition studies with the eminent American composer, Daron Hagen. He has also received mentoring from Australian composers, Carl Vine, Christopher Gordon and Holly Harrison, as well as American composers, Nico Muhly, Christopher Cerrone, and Missy Mazzoli.

In 2019, he was selected as a participant in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s “Words About Music Program” with Phillip Sametz. Christopher has also completed his PhD in Composition (Title: ‘Exploring Metaxis: An exploration of Metamodern and Wabi Sabi aesthetics and philosophies in a folio of original compositions.’).

Christopher Healey’s music is eclectic in style, atmospheric and evocative, from the transfixingly tender to the disturbingly macabre. He strives to create an emotionally and intellectually meaningful journey for his listeners, engaging and challenging them by combining the warmth of lyrical melodies with extended harmonies, contemporary textures and unusual musical forms. His catalogue comprises over 90 diverse works, including instrumental and vocal compositions, choral music, full-bodied orchestral scores, a set of miniatures, and a chamber opera.

He has received commissions from eminent musicians and arts organisations in Australia, China, France, Holland, and the USA, including Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Cybec), Omega Ensemble, 4MBS Classic FM, Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, the BRON Saxophone Quartet, Divisi Chamber Singers, BoB-Best of Brass, Ensemble Francaix, Ensemble Fabrique, and the Nickson Quartet. Christopher has also received prizes including the Alan Lane Award, A.G. Francis Prize, 2nd Place in the Arcadia Winds Composition Competition, 2nd Place in the ANZVS Composition Competition, and the Australian Postgraduate Award.

In 2020, Christopher’s horn quintet, Idyll of a Sea Voyager was premiered in China by members of horn section of the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, led by Dr Armin Terzer. The performance was televised by Zhejiang Guangxi Live. In the same year, his Fugue of Confinement was premiered in Melbourne by Daniel Tan (violin) and Luke Severn (cello), and his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was premiered in Sydney by Phillip O’Neill (trumpet) and Ingrid Sakurovs (piano). In 2021, Christopher’s works included compositions for Rockhampton Symphony Orchestra, Bendigo Symphony Orchestra and the Black Square String Quartet.

Read Christopher’s program note for his composition, Renewing Rain (2015), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).

Isabella Gerometta is an Australian composer and conductor.

She has prepared and directed choruses for a number of events with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, working alongside internationally recognised conductors such as Simone Young and Alondra de la Parra.

She has also co-directed a number of concerts for The Australian Voices, including Everyday Requiem in collaboration with Expressions Dance Company in 2018. Isabella’s works have been performed nationally and internationally.

Read Isabella’s program note for her composition, Beams and Waves (2018), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).

Connor D’Netto (he/him) is a composer of contemporary classical music, described as “the model contemporary Australian composer” by ABC Classic FM.

His music draws together post-minimal, neoclassical and pop influences, combined with the delicate incorporation of electronic music elements. As a performer, Connor explores the intersections of experimental electronica, ambient and electroacoustic music, combining hardware synthesisers, live instruments, guitar pedals and DIY creations.

Connor is a producer and concert organiser, focusing on creating community-focused immersive post-genre experiences. He is an active visual artist, working across various mediums including photography, videography, painting and sculpture.

Read Connor’s program note for his composition, Air & Fantasy (2017), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).

Queensland based composer Dr Samuel Dickenson has been hailed as one of Australia’s most exciting young talents, praised for his “singular and imaginative spark of individuality.”

During his study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Samuel achieved the Alan Lane Award for the highest achieving composition portfolio. He later completed a Ph.D. in composition at The University of Queensland.

Samuel’s music has been performed internationally, reaching audiences in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Austria, France, and China. In 2017, he joined forces with fellow Brisbane composer Andrew Wrangell to create the popular YouTube channel Sheet Music Boss, which currently has over 3 million subscribers and more than 1 billion views.

Read Samuel’s program note for his composition, Returning to the Sand (2019), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).

John (b. 1995), described by Limelight magazine as a ‘young, talented and innovative composer’, is an up and coming composer and conductor based in Brisbane, Australia.

John’s eclectic oeuvre spans from the ridiculous to the sublime; from folky Slovenian string quartets to Ambient Electronic Gregorian Chant and from Big Band Charts to large works for Symphony Orchestra.

Across this varied body of work the music is characterised by a strong sense of attachment and commentary on the institutions and history of music; it is a music which is full of life and always strives to emotionally communicate to and resonate with those who are willing to listen.

In 2021, John joined Camerata as Emerging Composer-in-Residence.

Read John’s program note for his composition, Plains Baked Golden in the Morning Light (2021), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).