2017 composers Sophie Van Dijk & Jos Markerink, and 2022 composers Aija Draguns & Janie Fitch
Coro Innominata is proud to announce the 2024 Women Composers Development Program, following successful programs in 2017 and 2022. This year we again look forward to continuing our commitment to supporting emerging artists, and invite applications from women composers across Australia.
The WCD Program provides the opportunity for two composers to work with Coro Innominata under the guidance of a Composer Mentor to prepare pieces for performance in December 2024. We are delighted that renowned Australian composer Ruth McCall will be the WCD Program mentor this year. Information about Ruth can be found at Ruth McCall : Represented Artist Profile : Australian Music Centre and Ruth McCall composer and musician – SingScore.
This year the concert theme is ‘Earth Songs’.
The 2024 WCD Program especially encourages applications from women composers based in regional Australia. Coro Innominata’s musical director Margaret Tesch-Muller says:
“Coming originally from regional Queensland myself, I have experienced the difficulties of any composer. But women, in particular, can face additional hurdles without the support of a larger musical community and in the face of competing demands.
The Women Composers Development Program offers emerging composers the chance to work towards a guaranteed concert performance by one of Sydney’s best choirs.”
Application Guidelines and Selection Criteria
Interested applicants or the media can contact the Choir for more information at: coro@innominata.org. Applications close on 23 August 2024 and the winning applicants will be notified by early September 2024.
History
Coro Innominata was formed in 1992. It has established itself as one of Sydney’s best non-professional choirs, with a repertoire spanning the Baroque to the present. Today, the choir actively seeks out music written by women and other underrepresented groups, and it was for this reason that the Women Composers Development Program was established in 2017 under Coro Innominata’s then musical director Sally Whitwell.
The Program’s first 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 program commenced in 2020. After Covid restrictions were lifted, we finally performed the beautiful works of Aija Druguns and Janie Fitch in April 2022 under the mentorship of Clare Maclean. Their works were perfomed in the ‘Art and Song’ concert, where we drew together visual art and music artforms and reflected on how each has inspired and influenced the other over time.
A New Jerusalem was composed with piano accompaniment by Janie Fitch, who 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.
We are looking forward to the 2024 composer’s musical explorations on the theme of Earth Songs.