2025 Hatched Academy Participants Announced
We are excited to announce the four exceptional composers who have been selected for Ensemble Offspring’s 2025 Hatched Composer Intensive. Chosen from over 40 applicants from across Australia, with a huge diversity of ages, backgrounds and musical perspectives, we welcome: Beth Roche (NSW), Louis Wishart (NSW), Georgina Bowden (SA) and Callum O’Reilly (WA/VIC).
Hatched Composer Intensive 2024 - Image by Jared Underwood
These talented emerging composers will embark on a creative journey of mentorship and artistic development throughout 2025, under the guidance of Artistic Director Claire Edwardes and Hatched Academy Director Jason Noble alongside lead mentor Holly Harrison and an impressive list of international mentors including Hatched Academy Patron, Brett Dean.
Their new creations will premiere at Future Classics on 22 November at the Utzon Room (don’t miss the show!). This show features Ensemble Offspring performers Lamorna Nightingale (flutes), Jason Noble (clarinet/bass clarinet), Ronan Apcar (2025 Hatched Emerging Performer/piano), Niki Johnson (Associate, percussion) and Benjamin Ward (Associate, double bass).
Complimenting this program that celebrates the innovation and boldness of the next generation of Australia’s most exciting composers are two more brand new commissions – a piano solo by Berlin based Australian composer Thomas Meadowcroft written for Ronan Apcar as the Emerging Performer Commission; and the inaugural Hatched Alumni Commission by 2025 Hatched Composer Intensive participant, Melbourne based Klearhos Murphy.
We extend our thanks to our integral community of trailblazing donors, whose generosity is the lifeblood of EO’s Hatched Academy. Now in its 12th year, Hatched Academy is a free opportunity for all participants, hosting an impressive list of alumni. If you are interested in nurturing the next generation of artistic movers and shakers in Australia, we invite you to join our community of Hatched patrons – please get in touch to find out how.
We are also proud to announce the seven participants selected for the 2025 Hatched Mentorship Program, our more casual coaching stream where participants are paired with a mentor for career advice and artistic guidance - Ben Perche (Sydney), Leila Harris (Sydney), E B Kerr (Moruya), Hayley Chan (Sydney), Frankie Dyson Reilly (Brisbane), Charlotte Leamon (Sydney), and Lucy Blomfield (Sydney) have all been accepted for 2025 and we look forward to working with them.
Join us for Future Classics on November 22 for an afternoon of daring sonic ideas and a glimpse at the future of Australian music!
Meet The 2025 Hatched Composer Intensive Participants
Beth Roche
Sydney, NSW
Beth Roche is a Sydney-based composer in her final year of a Bachelor of Music (Composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium. Beth performs and writes in a variety of styles and enjoys exploring the crossover of contemporary and classical music. In 2024, she was selected for the inaugural Sydney Conservatorium Winter School in Composition where her piece ‘A Peculiar Place’ was premiered by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows. Recently, Beth was selected for the Australian Youth Orchestra’s composition programme where she worked under Jessica Wells to write a piece for chamber orchestra. In 2025, she will take part in the Kuring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra’s emerging composer programme under Harry Sdraulig, and will be completing a commission for oboe quartet.
Louis Wishart
Sydney, NSW
Louis Wishart is a Sydney-based Composer and Musician, whose sound synthesises post-Coleman free-improvisation aesthetics with a focus on resonance, spectralism and linear processes. Graduating in 2023 from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music (Composition), First Class Honors, Louis has honed his craft under leading Australian composers Liza Lim, Gerard Brophy and Carl Vine. Louis has had his music performed internationally, in Houston with the AURA ensemble, Ensemble Garage in Cologne and Ostrava, as well as an upcoming Czech premiere by Ostravska Banda in August as Louis returns to the Ostrava Days festival. Louis focuses his time towards his ensemble "Scalp", which premiered in January 2025, premiering a new work by Louis, as well as his arrangement of the punk operetta "John Gavanti". Scalp is set to return in July 2025, in partnership with Phoenix Central Park.
Georgina Bowden
Adelaide, SA
Georgina Bowden is a composer, visual artist and multidisciplinary creator living in Adelaide, South Australia. Her music has been performed across Europe and Australia, recently in the ASO’s multimedia concert at the Light Room Adelaide, Ensemble Musikfabrik’s studio in Cologne, Hannover New Music’s Zeitlupe series, and Ostrava Days Festival in Czechia. Georgina transforms concepts from sciences, arts and politics into visceral music. These may be spatial and sensory experiences, drawing on my architecture training. She is currently focusing on abstractions of walks in nature, involving mapping, phenomenology, colour and quality of light, with inspiration from the vivid palettes of artist Vincent Bioules.
Callum O’Reilly
Perth, WA / Melbourne, VIC
Callum O'Reilly is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and multimedia artist currently based in Perth, Western Australia. With work that has been described as “hyper-modern” and “profoundly colourful,” he enjoys pushing traditional conventions and contorting the limits of the classical ensemble. He incorporates elements of electronic music, hip-hop, pop, and spiritual jazz, creating sonic worlds that are original and deeply embedded in modern culture while also murmuring the musical legacy of the past. He holds a Bachelor of Music Composition from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and is currently completing a Master's degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
