





2017 composers Sophie Van Dijk & Jos Markerink; 2022 composers Aija Draguns & Janie Fitch;
2024 composers Audrey Ormella & Sophia Mackson
About the Women Composers Development Program
Coro Innominata is proudly committed to helping build a music scene that is as inclusive and diverse as Australian society. We actively seek out music written by women and other underrepresented groups.
In 2017 under the leadership of then-Musical Director Sally Whitwell, Coro Innominata initiated its Women Composers Development Program (WCDP). Through the WCDP we aim to contribute to positive change that springboards women composers from just a 25% representation to equal representation of female composers in concert programs in Australia.
Emerging women composers often cite the profound influence on career success of mentoring and access to commissions and performing opportunities. In response, WCDP offers two emerging women composers the opportunity of being commissioned to write for one of Sydney’s best non-professional chamber choirs.
The WCD Program provides the opportunity for two composers to prepare their pieces for performance work under the guidance of a Composer Mentor and the Coro Innominata Musical Director. The two successful composers receive mentoring from the WCD Composer Mentor. In addition, they workshop their compositions with the choir before their works are performed live in concert in December 2024.
Our 2024 Women Composers
We are delighted to present our 2024 Women Composers, who were invited musical explorations on the theme of Earth Songs. They will be mentored by renowned Australian composer Ruth McCall. Information about Ruth can be found at Ruth the Australian Music Centre and at SingScore.
Sophia Mackson is a Queensland-based composer, advocate, violist, and educator. Sophia’s composition style has been described as quirky, yet sensitive and emotional in its content. She completed her Bachelor of Music (Hons) in 2023 at the University of Queensland, majoring in Viola Performance, and is currently studying Composition with John Rotar.
Through her composing, Sophia has received mentorship through Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Home Academy in 2020 with Veronqiue Serret. She has been awarded prizes through the NSW State Shakespeare Carnival (2019), QMTA’s Composition Competition (2024), Percy Brier Composition Prize (2022) and the Armidale Composition Eisteddfod (2019). Later this year, she will record her Viola duo “Centre” with violist Helena Burns to be released through Corella Recordings in mid 2025.
Sophia has been interviewed by ABC Classic, ABC New England Northwest and ABC Brisbane for her advocacy in classical music, particularly around being a musician and having ADHD. Her podcast “On-the-spot” features people who work in the arts that are neurodiverse and have disabilities, for which she has been lauded as a changemaker in the classical music industry. Sophia hopes to combine her skills with her experiences as a queer, genderqueer and neurodivergent musician to create works that speak to a large audience and that evoke conversation.
Audrey Ormella is a young composer working on Wangal Land in Sydney’s inner west. Her music is inspired by natural processes, conceptual and visual ideas, and human experiences. In her studies Audrey has had the opportunity to write for a range of instrumental and choral colours, which include pi’pa and violin, Haydn baryton, children’s choirs, orchestra, and string quartet. These experiences have enriched her musical language, and encouraged broad experimentation.
Recent highlights in Audrey’s practice include performances by the Goldner String Quartet, the Cantabile Festival Combined Choir at the Sydney Opera House, and The Choir of Trinity Melbourne.
Join us in celebrating two new works from Sophia and Audrey at our Earth Songs concert on 1 December 2024.
Previous WCDP Composers
Our first WCDP composers, Jos Markerink and Sophie Van Dijk, worked with mentor Jessica Wells on The Interior Castle, a suite of pieces based on the writings of Teresa of Ávila that were performed alongside Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum.
The second WCDP commenced in 2020, with completion delayed by the Covid pandemic. In April 2022 Coro finally performed the beautiful works of Aija Druguns and Janie Fitch under the mentorship of Clare Maclean. Their works were performed in the Art and Song concert, where we drew together visual art and music artforms to reflect on how each has inspired or influenced the other over time.
Janie Fitch composed A New Jerusalem with piano accompaniment, and took her inspiration from a painting by American artist, James B. Janknegt (b. 1953) entitled Make All Things New (2005). In turn, this painting was inspired by a brief biblical passage, Revelation 21:1-6, with its references to “the new Jerusalem” and “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”.
Aija Draguns’ a cappella composition, Putns ar ugns spārniem (Bird with the wings of fire) is about a sense of renewal and hope after darkness, sung through the image of a phoenix. Latvian writer Aspāzija’s poem speaks of the phoenix as a morning bird: a beaming orange light after the darkness of night. The embers fall, however do not burn- they shine, and bring the daylight.