ABC Classic and ABC Jazz have announced the 15 recipients of their second annual Composer Commissioning Fund, with 11 classical commissions and four provided for jazz. Over half of commissioned musicians identify as female. The ABC has also commissioned five CALD artists, one Indigenous artist, two LGBTI+ artists and two composers living with a disability for its 2022 Fund. As selected from a pool of 130 applicants, the artists receive up to $6,000 in funding composition and studio recording at ABC, as well as digital release via ABC Music.

The 11 classical commissioned artists are Leah Blankendaal, Jennifer Hankin, Juliana Kay, Ray Lin, Charulatha Mani, Adam Manning, Puya Mehman Pazi, Katherine Potter, Paul Smith, Louisa Trewartha and Alexander Voltz.

Sound artist and composer Leah Blankendaal received the 2020 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Commission and a Classical:NEXT Fellowship. For her commission, Lake, she will work with poet Claire Nashar and mezzo-soprano AJ America as director to compose an a cappella song cycle of three works, inspired by Nashar’s poetry, for Canberra’s Luminescence Chamber Singers. The work draws upon lifelong relationships to place and people, where the song...