The Australian Music Centre (AMC) has announced the composers selected for its 2026 MOMENTUM Plus project. Ten Australian composers will see large-scale orchestral works up to five minutes in length recorded at Trackdown Studios in October.

Top row: Andrew Aronowicz, Nadia Burgess, Oliver John Cameron, Robert Davidson, Tamara Friebel. Bottom row: Hayden Gardiner, Andrew Howes, Katharine Parton, Robert Smallwood, Cassie To. Photos supplied

The 2026 composers are Andrew Aronowicz (Pure Heart), Nadia Burgess (Sublime for Orchestra), Oliver John Cameron (Breathwork: Out of the Rapids), Robert Davidson (Lost in Light), Tamara Friebel (Aureola Lumina) Hayden Gardiner (Air), Andrew Howes (Water Phases), Katharine Parton (Magnetic Resonance), Robert Smallwood (Anniversaries II) and Cassie To (Cycles).

The MOMENTUM Plus project was established in 2025 to mark AMC’s 50th birthday; it grants its composers  full ownership rights of the resulting recordings.

The AMC’s broader MOMENTUM Commissions initiative was established in 2020 and commissioned chamber works from composers and sound artists at all stages of their career.

“The orchestra remains an important medium for contemporary music, yet is fundamentally inaccessible to composers beyond traditional and highly competitive pathways,” the AMC wrote in Resonate Magazine.

“AMC’s MOMENTUM Plus initiative seeks to bridge industry gaps so that orchestral works can more easily be heard beyond their premiere performance, and artists have full control of recorded works to further advance their creative portfolio.”

More about the Australian Music Centre’s MOMENTUM commissioning project can be found here.