The 11 recipients of the 2025 Art Music Fund have been announced today by APRA AMCOS, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music.

The Fund grants $82,500 in support to 11 composers (nine from Australia, two from New Zealand) to create a commissioned work.

The composers are Biddy Connor, Cayn Borthwick, Katy Abbott, Leah Curtis, Mace Francis, Megan Clune, Phoebe Bognar, Rafael Karlen, Thomas Meadowcroft, Dylan Lardelli and Tatiana Riabinkina.

Biddy Connor. Photo © Bryony Jackson

Violist and composer Biddy Connor‘s Song to the Cell places a beeping, whirring  IV machine in duet with a vocalist  to explore ideas of “healing, dependency and transhuman connection”

“The Art Music Fund is crucial because it champions ambitious, innovative and often genre-defying contemporary music that might otherwise lack dedicated backing,” said Connor. “It allows composers to take creative risks and develop original and artistic works. Without this support, many significant projects in art music would simply not be realised.”

Cayn Borthwick‘s new multimedia performance work Cryoswell will be performed by Rubiks Collective. Sonifying both environmental and human data, the work features “bespoke ice instruments, surround sound and visuals of glaciers” in...