As part of its ongoing commitment to championing new Australian work, Flinders Quartet has expanded its celebrated Composer Development Program with the launch of a new initiative, Emerge. The year-long program offers composers a program of deeply engaged study and professional development, with a particular focus on learning the compositional craft of writing for string quartet.

“The string quartet repertoire contains some of the greatest in Western music and it is often an opportunity for a composer to create a piece that is intensely personal. Flinders Quartet is conscious that we allow today’s composers the opportunity to continue this legacy,” says Zoe Knighton, cellist and founding member of Flinders Quartet.

“Flinders Quartet is hoping to create a community of composers who love, respect and acknowledge the great works of the string quartet canon in order to look to a future of great music that represents them as individuals and 21st century Australia.”

Flinders Quartet’s Emerge program offers emerging composers the chance to participate in a year-long program. Photo supplied

The program complements the quartet’s Ascend initiative, which this year supported composers Anne Cawrse, Wayne Neilson and Christopher Healey in workshopping a...