The Australian Music Centre has announced Helen Svoboda and Reuben Lewis as the recipients of the latest round of its MOMENTUM Commissions, boosting the creation of new works by Australian artists in jazz and improvised music.

A double bassist, vocalist and composer Svoboda will create a new work for her experimental folk/jazz duo MEATSHELL, with saxophonist Andrew Saragossi.

Helen Svoboda. Photo © Celeste de Clario

Being selected as one of the 2023 MOMENTUM Commission recipients is “an exciting honour,” Svoboda said. 

“The realisation of this project will allow me the space and time to incorporate electronics and live processing into my skill-set, breathing new life into my compositional practice as an artist working at the cross-sections of jazz and experimental music.”

Svoboda has performed with artists and organisations including Pheeroan akLaff, Sebastian Gramss, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Art Orchestra, with whom she was an Associate Artist from 2020/2021. Svoboda was recently named as a 2023  FutureMaker with Musica Viva Australia and was the winner of the 2020 Freedman Jazz Fellowship.

Reuben Lewis. Photo © DUNCOGRAPHIC

ARIA-nominated artist Reuben...