RISING TALENT 2023 - COMPOSERS

COMPOSERS

So impressed are we with the industry’s up-and-comers, we have decided to make our Rising Talent list an annual fixture. These are the people we think the industry needs to sit up and take notice of; the names you’ll need to know and want to work with in the years ahead. Some faces are relatively new, while others have recently moved up the chain into leadership positions where they are making change.

Thank you again to everyone who helped us put this list together, including the hundreds of submissions we received through our public call out. We know this list is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the talent in this industry, but we hope it hints towards its future.

ANGELA LITTLE

In 2022, Angela Little was nominated for both a Screen Music Award and an AACTA Award for her score for A Stitch in Time. She was also nominated for a Screen Music Award for Best Music for an Advertisement for Ausfilm: The Australian Job, which also won her a Hollywood Music in Media Award.

Little’s break in screen scoring was back on Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, for which she composed additional music, and was singer and co-writer of the film’s end song, By The Boab Tree. In 2015, she featured as a vocal soloist on Marco Beltrami’s score for Gods of Egypt, and composed the score for documentary Zach’s Ceremony.

Little relocated to LA in 2018 to complete a Master of Music Screen Scoring at the University of Southern California. There, she was mentored by Thomas Newman, and was awarded the Sandra and Alan Silvestri scholarship and the Joe and Alice Harnell Award. After graduating, she began composing for LA-based Hexany Audio, working on AAA game titles such as Tencent’s Honor of Kings. In 2022, she signed to Peermusic.

Little’s recent credits as composer include Everybody’s Oma, Never Too Late, Streamline, Mistletoe’s Ranch, Swimming for Gold, Back of the Net and Dive Club, for which she was nominated for a Screen Music Award in 2021. In 2019, she won a Screen Music Award for short film For The Girl in the Coffee Shop.

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EVELYN IDA MORRIS

Evelyn Ida Morris started their career releasing albums under the name Pikelet. In 2017, Morris then released their first self-titled album, which represented a significant departure from the looping pop of Pikelet and instead focused wholly on piano. Thematically, the album dealt with the experience of being non-binary.

Morris’s debut film score was for Thomas M. Wright’s debut feature Acute Misfortune, which was nominated for an ARIA. They have since scored two further features, David O’Donnell’s Under My Skin and the recent NZ feature Millie Lies Low, directed by Michelle Savill, which played in Berlin and SXSW.

Morris also scored Lucy Knox’s short Hot Mother, which screened in Berlin in 2020.

Over the past three years, Morris has also worked as a sound designer and composer for conceptual artists Agatha-Gothe-Snape and Sarah Rodigari, and has presented works at MUMA gallery with them both. They are currently making their own collage film series featuring contemporary dancers, to be presented as an installation and released alongside their upcoming album Like Comfort. This will be released on Remote Control Records, as well as an improvised piano album called Extended Time, made in response to the work of painter Elizabeth Newman.

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SALLIANA SEVEN CAMPBELL

Salliana Seven Campbell is a freelance composer and multi-instrumentalist performing on five-string violin, nyckelharpa, octave mandolin, baritone bowed psaltery, piano, hammered dulcimer, hurdy gurdy and vocals.

She recently made her feature film debut on Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, which saw her win the Screen Music Award for Feature Film Score of the Year in 2022 and nominated for an AACTA.

Campbell studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and has performed with artists such as Alex Lloyd, Bernard Fanning, Powderfinger, Kate Mille-Heidke, Russell Morris, Kasey Chambers, Grant McLennan, Michael Leunig and Lior.

She has also written soundtracks for theatre, notably Shake and Stir’s A Christmas Carol and is a session player recording fiddle and string arrangements for artists and bands.

Currently she tours year-round with Alex Lloyd playing five-string fiddle and piano.

DANIEL O’BRIEN

Daniel O’Brien is a Brisbane-based composer whose recent credits include Bluey, The Strange Chores and season two of Fisk.

O’Brien was classically trained at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, majoring in composition. In 2021, he graduated with a Master of Arts Screen (composition) from AFTRS.

In addition to his long-form work, O’Brien is a two-time BADC (Brisbane Advertising & Design Club) award winner for his television commercial work with major clients such as Sea World, Dreamworld, Gold Lotto, and CPL.

O’Brien enjoys collaborating with fellow musicians, composers, and filmmakers. In his spare time, he collects weird and whacky instruments.

DMITRI GOLOVKO

Dmitri Golovko is a composer and sound designer who has worked on feature films, documentaries, TV series, commercials and games.

Golovko started composing music at an early age with a background in percussion and piano. With an infatuation with films, games and storytelling he went on to study filmmaking at the VCA. While that didn’t last long, since abandoning his film studies he has gone on to pursue a successful career in music.

In 2019 and 2021, Golovko was nominated for Screen Music Awards for his work on Miss Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries. In 2019, he was nominated for Best Music in an Advertisement, and in 2022, Best Music in a Short Film for Bellysaurus. He was also nominated for Best Soundtrack Album for Red Hill back in 2011.

His other diverse credits as composer include The Gloaming, China’s Artful Dissident and Footballer Wants A Wife, with his music also featured in The Hitman’s Bodyguard.

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