2026 Art Music Fund recipients announced
Two Aotearoa composers are among the 2026 Art Music Fund recipients, congratulations to Jasmine Lovell-Smith, and Ruby Solly.
APRA AMCOS, in partnership with the Australian Music Centre (AMC) and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, has announced the recipients of the 2026 Art Music Fund.
17 established composers, 15 from Australia and two from Aotearoa, are receiving AU$7,500 each to create a commissioned work with the intention of ensuring a long artistic life for the work and its composer. An additional AU$45,000 in funding was generously provided this year by Music Australia to support six extra Australian composers.
This year’s recipients are Jasmine Lovell-Smith and Ruby Solly, and Australian composers Alexander Garsden, Andrée Greenwell, Benjamin Shannon, Ceridwen McCooey, Chris Williams, Dane Yates, Dominic Flynn, Jack Symonds, Jeremy Rose, Katia Geha, Meta Cohen, Miyama McQueen-Tokita, Rachel Emma Lewindon, Ripley Kavara, and Solomon Frank.
The works receiving funding this year range from song cycles to experimental compositions, choral works and ensembles tackling topics from the life of poet William Blake to the sounds and landscape of regional Western Australia and the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Ruby Solly, who is developing a new work for open instrumentation and fixed media alongside collaborators Jesse Austin-Stewart and Elliot Vaughan, explains: “This grant will enable us to take full advantage of an important opportunity for trans-locational work we are doing alongside CANZ and sister organisations in other countries, having this grant allows us to do more and to create something that we feel is truly special and that has a chance to both survive and grow.”
The work has been commissioned specifically for the '4 Islands' concert series in 2026, which is an international initiative connecting Aotearoa, the Faroe Islands, Gotland (Sweden), and the Canary Islands (Spain) through a shared program of new music. Teh composition will explore the concept of whakapapa (genealogy) within performance.
Composer and saxophonist Jasmine Lovell-Smith is now based in Mexico, and is creating a set of seven new pieces for an improvising ensemble of flexible instrumentation, to be premiered at the CMMAS in Morelia, Mexico, before bringing them back to Aotearoa for performances in Wellington and Auckland. "I am thrilled to be a recipient of this year’s APRA Art Music Fund. This grant will provide me with essential support to focus time and energy on developing my creative practice as a composer in new and exploratory directions. Initiatives such as this are so valuable for the New Zealand and Australian arts ecosystems, allowing composers to experiment, take risks and grow their practice. I am so grateful for this support!"
The Art Music Fund was launched in 2016 in recognition of the limited opportunities for art music composers to have new works performed. It directly funds new work and provides winning composers with professional support to grow their repertoire in a sustainable way. Since then, over AU$1 million in funding has been given out to over 120 composers across Australasia.
Previous winners have included Eve de Castro-Robinson, Salina Fisher, Dylan Lardelli, Nathaniel Otley, Riki Pirihi, and Tatiana Riabinkina.
Hannah Darroch, CE of SOUNZ, says: "This is such a valuable opportunity for composers in Aotearoa, helping to support innovative new works and sustainable creative careers. I'm delighted that the Art Music Fund can support these two incredibly talented wahine in 2026, and I look forward to hearing Jasmine and Ruby's works. SOUNZ is grateful to be involved in this collaboration with APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre - congratulations to all of the recipients."
For further information, visit apraamcos.com.au/artmusicfund