While the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the performing arts industry, stories of artists banding together to help each other out – such as the establishment of the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall platform – have provided moments of hope in these difficult times.

In that spirit, the Australian Music Centre has announced that a leading Australian composer has generously provided $5,000 for a new commission to support a composer who doesn’t have ongoing employment, or a regular income, to be able to develop a new work. “The commission recognises that resilience and positive momentum are integral to creative process, and provides a breathing and thinking space within which the work of art may continue to flourish,” the AMC said in its announcement.

Image courtesy of the Australian Music Centre

Performers found themselves with months of cancelled gigs when the pandemic hit Australia in March, but the effects are being felt by composers as well. “Composers are most certainly also severely affected,” the AMC’s CEO John Davis tells Limelight. “Those who have had performances of existing works, or new works, cancelled or deferred; those who are commencing or completing commissions for works where there now...