Composer and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music alumnus Matt Laing has been named the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Albert H. Maggs Composition Award for his work This Waking Moment.

Matt Laing. Portrait © Albert Comper

Awarded by the University of Melbourne, the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award is one of Australia’s most significant commissions for composers, supporting the creation of a new musical work. Valued at up to $20,000, the award has a long history of fostering ambitious and distinctive voices in Australian composition.

The selection panel praised This Waking Moment, composed for the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, as a striking and finely wrought work. Described as a “textural portrait of the sunrise”, the piece is scored for string orchestra, drawing on a delicate palette of sonorities. The panel noted that Laing’s music explores new musical terrain while elegantly evoking darkness and light through a musical world of lyrical and spirited moods.

Expressing his delight at receiving the award, Laing said, “I’m really looking forward to making the new work as part of this prize and sharing it in 2027.”

Thanking the University of Melbourne for the honour and acknowledging the collaborators who helped bring the work to life, Laing paid tribute to Sophie Rowell and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra for commissioning and performing This Waking Moment, as well as ABC Classic for its recording of the work.

Read more about the award here.