Chamber Music Adelaide is committed to the creation of new Australian music, offering composers meaningful opportunities to develop and present new works alongside South Australian chamber musicians. Our commissioning program has an established track record of works that extend well beyond their premieres, with previous commissions going on to receive national recognition, further performances, recording opportunities, and significant career impact for the composers involved.
Current Opportunity
On the Terrace 10th Anniversary Commission — EOIs open now
We are inviting South Australian composers to create a new work around the theme of gathering and reinvention — a piece that honours where chamber music has been and imagines where it might yet go. The work will bring together two chamber ensembles and mixed ability choir as the culminating performance of On the Terrace 2026. Two pathways are available: Independent ($8,500) and Mentored ($6,000).
EOIs close 23 June 2026.
Commissioning Program
Past Commissions
MOD. - Forever (2025)
In 2025, Chamber Music Adelaide partnered with MOD. Museum to commission two new works responding to the Forever exhibition, which explored themes of time, mortality, memory and speculative futures.
David Kotlowy's sometimes brought together guzheng and baroque string trio to examine personal and cultural perceptions of time - a confluence of Chinese and European musical traditions that has grown into a larger project exploring baroque and Indonesian gamelan.
Amelia Rooney's THE TREES ARE TURNING OFF! for string trio and laptop explored ecological decay, extending Rooney's practice into new territory and aligning with MOD.'s strategic focus on audiences aged 18–25.
Photography: Ben Searcy
Perspectives (2023/24)
In 2023 and 2024, Chamber Music Adelaide, through a Cultural Partnership with the City of Adelaide, offered four commissions to South Australian composers as part of Perspectives, with performances in the Adelaide Town Hall in 2024. The two concerts featured the four new works, performed by South Australian ensembles, alongside works showcasing a range of musical styles where the music communicates a sense of place and time.The concert was live-streamed via the Australian Digital Concert Hall.
Each of the new works continues to have a life beyond the initial performance, including Stories in Song, a full length concert showcasing works by Nathan May, recomposed with Julian Ferraretto, for Adelaide Baroque String Quartet. Anne Cawrse’s She Who Knows Strange Songs has been developed as part of a theatre piece by Cheryl Pickering. Jodie O’Regan wrote a significant piece Cana Cludhmor which has become a larger chamber work, Leviathan, with multiple movements. Glyn Lehmann recently recorded his work As the Universe Expands, a stunning recording now available to purchase, featuring Chamber Music Adelaide artists.
Photography: Jason Mildwaters
Invisibility (2022)
In 2022, CMA delivered its first commissioning program in partnership with MOD. Funded through an ArtsSA Collaboration grant, Invisibility saw five South Australian composers write new chamber music works in response to MOD.’s exhibition, performed amongst the artworks. The project was a huge success, generating significant interest within the arts and wider community, providing a valuable employment opportunity for composers and independent musicians and in bringing together two very different cultural organisations in CMA and MOD. Commissioned composers included Jesse Budel, Georgina Bowden, Hilary Kleinig, Belinda Gehlert and Luke Altmann.