The four finalists for this year’s Freedman Classical Fellowship have been announced. Awarded by the Freedman Foundation, the fellowship seeks to reward and support musicians under 30 who are engaging in music composition and performance in innovative and creative ways. 

Freedman Fellowship finalists Eliza Shephard, Kyla Matsuura-Miller, Molly Collier-O’Boyle and Will Hansen. Photos supplied.

The finalists are violist Molly Collier-O’Boyle (27), violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller (28) and flautist Eliza Shephard (28), all ANAM graduates from Victoria; and double bassist Will Hansen (24) from New South Wales who is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. They were selected from a pool of 16 candidates who all submitted performance recordings and proposals for new commissioned works. The recipient of the fellowship will receive financial support to realise their project.

The finalists were assessed by a panel of three judges: ABC broadcaster Penny Lomax, pianist and Classical FM presenter Tamara-Anna Cislowska and violinist Véronique Serret, all of whom will judge the final concert in November. 

“We all agreed it is inspiring to see such creatively diverse and ambitious projects,” said Lomax, “particularly as they were...