Performer to Composer: Ronan Apcar chats with Callum O’Reilly
7 November, 2025
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.
After his time in Canberra and Melbourne, Ronan Apcar has returned to his hometown of Sydney to focus on various projects throughout 2025 including concert work, recording work, residencies, and collaborative work with other artists and organisations - plus being Ensemble Offspring’s 2025 Hatched Emerging Performer! Ronan interviewed Callum about his musical background, interests and current projects.
Callum O’Reilly, 2025 Hatched Academy Composer
Ronan Apcar, 2025 Hatched Emerging Performer
Ronan: Do you have any formative experiences or early memories that you think shaped you into the composer/artist you are today?
Callum: As a kid I spent many hours making beats on a bootleg copy of fruity loops studio. This is a music software designed primarily to make electronic music and I would use it to make hip hop beats. Somewhere along the way I became interested in classical music and discovered and really dove very deep into the classical cannon. I think that the playful fun of DAW beatmaking and the ‘seriousness’ of classical music is where I sit musically. In fact, in my mind I find it difficult to discern what kind of composer I am because at this point in time I have written beats for classical ensembles.
Ronan: Do you have a dream collaboration? Maybe a performer you would love to write a piece for, or another artist (musical or not!) you’d love to collaborate with?
Callum: What kind of dreams we talking here? Björk would be cool. I would love to write some sort of song cycle with Lætitia Sadier from Stereolab on the text and vocals… I love her voice. I really want to write a Ballet for a skilled ballet company. I think about dance a lot when writing music, even if I'm not writing music directly for dance. I really like installation art and would be interested in collaborating with lighting designers and digital artists. And of course there are many classical musicians who I would love to collaborate with, actually I’m lucky enough to be collaborating with them right now this year including Ensemble Offspring, and I’m not just saying that to be flattering, I really do feel lucky to have such great artists ask me to write them music. It’s an honour.
Ronan: If you had to pick another artform or creative practice besides music, what would it be?
Callum: Filmmaking. I’m equally obsessed with films as I am with music. It’s much more expensive than making music and much more collaborative. I saw that the composer Jóhann Jóhannsson made a film called First and Last Men to accompany his music. This could be a possibility eventually. In saying this, I have never made music with film in mind and if I’m writing music I’m usually only interested in the music itself without needing anything visual to accompany it.
Ronan: Performers often have some kind of ritual before they go on stage - do you have any rituals for when it’s time to compose?
Callum: I wish that I did… In reality every piece that I write has its own unique challenges to solve and most of the time that means that I start from square one, well at least it feels that way. I have a few books that I refer to for inspiration. There are a few artists who I like to spend some time with if I’m feeling stuck - David Lynch, Laurie Anderson, Ryuchi Sakamoto, John Waters, Brian Eno and others.
Ronan: What’s one of your most favourite sounds in the world - and one of your least favourites?
Callum: There’s this great interview with composer Stockhausen which you can find on youtube where the interviewer asks him “can you tell me what the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard is?” and after an awkward pause he says “no” with a deadpan expression. I think that maybe it’s because sounds can either be beautiful or annoying depending on the context. I love the sound of a rooster crow. Have you ever heard the call of an Australian Bustard? It has this terrifying low roar sound which is like a T-Rex. The Kookaburra has a great sound.
My least favourite sound is probably anything which comes out of a phone. Maybe I’m just traumatised from my morning alarm clock, but I also never overhear someone playing something loudly on their phone and think “ahh that’s beautiful”.
Ronan: What’s a recent composition or project you’re proud of and would like to share?
Callum: I recently composed a piece for Omega Ensemble called State of Flux which sounds like the title of a PS2 game, but it was a 15 minute piece of contemporary classical music with electronics. There were gabber style club beats in it and weird glitchy distorted vocals. It’s probably my best work to date and Omega Ensemble absolutely nailed it as you would expect! The record should be somewhere online soon with the score.
Ronan: Tell us a bit about your composition to be premiered at Future Classics!
Callum: For my piece written with Ensemble Offspring I was thinking a lot about looping (taking a sample of music and letting it repeat over and over) and then I started to think about looping which is unintentional like a broken record or a CD skipping, and I thought that it would be fun to make a piece of music that skips and lags. It’s also very pretty and shiny at moments.
Ensemble Offspring’s 2025 Hatched Emerging Performer, pianist Ronan Apcar.
Callum’s new work, composed through our Hatched Academy Composers program, will premiere on 22 November 2025 at the Uzton Room, Sydney Opera House, performed by Ensemble Offspring as part of Future Classics.
