Nurturing the careers of Australia's future composers

In 1994, the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) initiated two related projects supporting and acknowledging composition in schools and offering the opportunity for secondary school-aged students to work with prominent Australian composers. These were the Young Composers' Project and the Composer-in-Residence Project. Both projects were planned in conjunction with the biennial ASME National Conference, in association with the Australian Music Centre and initially the Australia Council for the Arts. The context of this article is set with an overview of the teaching of composition in the compulsory and post-compulsory years of schooling in Australia, giving contrasting examples of a specific syllabus and a generic framework. Organizations in Australia that provide composition opportunities for students are identified and acknowledged. The ASME Young Composers' Project and the Composer-in-Residence Project are presented to illustrate venture-developed projects that are promoted by a professional teaching association to nurture school-age student composers and the teaching of composition in schools. The experiences of some of the students who have participated in the projects are presented. Their comments mainly focus on the opportunity that is provided by the Young Composers' Project to work with composers and professional ensembles, and the opportunity to meet members of their peer group with like interests.