2026 Women Composers
Applications now open for the Women Composers Development Program 2026!
If you’re an emerging composer, you’ll know that the most difficult stage is often getting your work in front of an audience with a high-level ensemble, while also being afforded the opportunity to grow through the process of composing for performance.
The WCDP is an opportunity for emerging female composers to write a choral work culminating in a guaranteed performance and recording in the year of composition.
Our November 2026 concert 30 Below, where these works will be performed, showcases early brilliance by featuring music from across history composed by artists under the age of 30. Every composer in the program, from across time and place, will have that one thing in common. So just for this year, our WCDP composers will also be under 30 at the time of writing.In 2026, we are fortunate to have as our program mentor Dr Lisa Cheney, one of the most distinctive and versatile compositional voices working in Australia today!
Interested composers can:
- Find out more about Lisa’s work for the concert hall, theatre, film, animation and dance on her Lisa Cheney website.
- View examples of Coro Innominata choral work here.
Download the WCDP Application Guide for more information.
Applications are due Friday 19 June 2026.
About the Women Composers Development Program
Coro Innominata is passionate about fostering a music scene that reflects the rich diversity of Australian society. We’re proud to champion inclusivity by actively seeking out music written by women and other underrepresented voices.
In 2017, under the visionary leadership of then-Musical Director Sally Whitwell, we launched the Women Composers Development Program (WCDP): a biennial initiative designed to support emerging women composers and help shift the balance toward equal representation in Australian concert programming.
Every two years, the WCDP offers two emerging women composers the opportunity to write original works for Coro Innominata, one of Sydney’s leading non-professional chamber choirs.
Commissioned composers receive dedicated mentorship from an experienced Composer Mentor and work closely with our Musical Director to refine their pieces. The program also includes workshops with the choir, giving composers valuable feedback and performance experience. Final works are premiered in our end-of-year concert.
We believe that access to mentoring, commissions and performance opportunities can be transformative, and through the WCDP we’re proud to play a part in creating a more equitable and vibrant Australian music culture.
Previous WCDP Composers
2024
Our 2024 Women Composers were invited musical explorations on the theme of Earth Songs. Sophia Mackson, a Queensland-based composer, and Audrey Ormella a composer working on Wangal Land in Sydney’s inner west, were mentored by renowned Australian composer Ruth McCall.
Sophia Mackson based her composition on Hilda Doolittle’s poem The Garden. She aimed to portray the reader’s imagery through her response to the text. The song features moments of the sparseness and moments of movement usiong phrases or words to create particular sounds and textures.
Audrey Ormella both composed and wrote the lyrics for Bringing Back the Birds, referencing plants and animals from her local area. It is inspired by her hope that if every person took care of and cultivated the natural flora around them, endemic species would return triumphantly to the urban spaces from which they have driven.
2020/2022
Our 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.
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. The lyrics from Latvian writer Aspāzija’s poem speak of the phoenix as a morning bird bringing daylight after the darkness of night.
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). This painting, in turn, was inspired by Revelation 21:1-6, with its references to “the new Jerusalem” and “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”.
2017
In 2017 our first WCDP composers, Jos Markerink and Sophie Van Dijk, worked with mentor Jessica Wells on The Interior Castle. They composed a suite of pieces based on the writings of Teresa of Ávila that was performed alongside Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum.
Sophie (left) and Jos (right) composed a suite of pieces based on the writings of Teresa of Ávila. These new choral compositions were performed alongside Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum.