Music Performance UNSW has announced that Natalie Nicolas has received the 2025 Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship.

Valued at $10,000, the fellowship gives a rising composer an opportunity to write a chamber work over the course of a year, and the opportunity to receive mentorship with the Australian Ensemble and external composers.

Natalie Nicolas. Photo supplied

“Congratulations to Dr Natalie Nicolas on being awarded the Layton Fellowship for 2025,” said Paul Stanhope, Artistic Chair of the Australia Ensemble.

“Natalie’s submission was impressive in its compelling sense of an individual voice. The submitted works displayed an acuity with chamber music genres that made her submission a clear standout.”

“The panel agreed that her works were not only technically assured but left the listener wanting to hear more of her music,” Stanhope said. “We look forward to hearing the work Natalie composes for the Australia Ensemble in 2025.”

Nicolas is a Sydney-based composer who holds a PhD from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her works have been performed by the Tasmanian, Sydney and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, and she has participated in composition programs including the Flinders Quartet Composition Competition, and MSO’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program....