RISING TALENT 2024: COMPOSERS

RISING TALENT 2024

The IF Rising Talent list for 2024 is made up of people we think will shift and lead our industry into the future. Some are newer faces, others have recently stepped into senior roles where they’re now making waves. We think you’ll want to work with all of them. We put this list together through a public call out and extensive insdustry outreach. This year, we had a staggering 692 names put forward. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent that’s out there in Australia.

COMPOSERS

PETRA SALSJÖ

Born in Sweden, Petra Salsjö started her musical journey via the piano at a young age. She has a Bachelor of Music (Performance) from the VCA and undertook postgraduate studies in composition at the University of Melbourne.

Her career in screen composing began with 2011 short The Telegram Man, which won the BAFTA LA Prize. Across the last decade, she has worked as a composer on shorts, documentaries and feature films such as The Flood.

Salsjö was the inaugural recipient of Screen Australia and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers’ Credit Maker program in 2023, resulting in a co-composing role on Binge’s Love Me and additional scoring on the ABC’s Crazy Fun Park, supported by Electric Dreams Studio.

An accomplished pianist, Salsjö continues to perform recitals of her neo-classical repertoire and is midway through recording a collection of bespoke miniatures The Droplets. In early 2025, she will embark on a four-week residency in Sweden at the Visby International Centre for Composers.

∗ ∗ ∗

LUNA PAN

Sydney-based composer Luna Pan works across film and TV, advertising and games. She studied piano and music theory from a young age, and holds a Master of Arts degree in Orchestration for Film, Games and Television from University of Chichester.

Pan’s recent credits include documentary The Carnival, which won her an LIT Talent Award for Best Original Score, feature film Streets of Colour and short film Jia She has also worked on soundtracks for TV series such as The Block, The Traitors, Food Stars, Bondi Rescue, The Traitors and Bluey, and on commercials for brands such as Dove, Dermalogica, YD, Coo-E.

Pan is a two-time finalist and the winner of the 2023 APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award. In 2019, APRA AMCO also selected Pan for of a Women in Music mentorship in TV composition. Her composition recorded with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Evolution, was nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2021 and her orchestral piece recorded with Smecky Music Studio, The Masquerade, nominated again in 2022.

∗ ∗ ∗

JOSIE MANN

Josie Mann is a composer, songwriter and vocalist, specialising in layering and manipulating her voice.

A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Mann joined the team at Sonar Music in 2022, composing for Bump seasons two, three and four. Her other credits include the SBS doc Inconceivable and anthology Erotic Stories, composed alongside Antony Partos. Her TVC credits include McDonalds, Vanguard and Made by Dyslexia, which received a best composition nomination at the 2023 AWARD Awards. Mann also composes for podcasts, her most recent commission being the theme track to Audiocraft’s Flirties.

As a vocal arranger and session vocalist, Mann has sung on Wellmania and Five Bedrooms for composer Matteo Zingales, as well as And Mrs, Being Betty Flood and A Savage Christmas for Jason Fernandez.

Mann creates songs under her artist persona Jofi. She is currently in the final stages of completing her debut album.

∗ ∗ ∗

JAMES MOUNTAIN

James Mountain is a Sydney based composer for screen, stage and concert. With a background in classical guitar, he studied composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music before completing a Master of Arts Screen (Music) at AFTRS.

In 2023, he won a Screen Music Award for his score to short Mud Crab, and was also nominated for Best Soundtrack Album. Other recognitions for the score include Best Original Music in an Australian Short Film at Flickerfest, Best Original Score at St Kilda Film Festival, and Best Score (National) at Canberra Short Film Festival.

Mountain’s concert music includes the guitar solo Between Tall Trees which won First Place and the Under 25 Emerging Composer Award in the 2016 Matt Withers Australian Music Composition Competition, and the piano trio Moons We Live With which was awarded second in the 2019 Athenaeum Club Composition Competition. He has also written music for theatre, including an original one-act musical, Green Room.

∗ ∗ ∗

RHYAN CLAPHAM

Rhyan Clapham, aka DOBBY, is a Filipino and Aboriginal rapper, composer, producer and drummer, whose roots run deep in the Muruwari and Ngemba lands of Weilmoringle and Brewarrina, NSW.

Clapham was the inaugural participant selected for the NATSIMO Screen Composer Intensive in 2022, which saw him mentored by Amanda Brown, Antony Partos and Jessica Wells. His screen composing credits include SBS’s Erotic Stories, NITV’s Rebel With a Cause and Marringa Lullaby for ABC Kids. Clapham also composed the music for WINHANGANHA, the debut feature of Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money.

As DOBBY, Clapham has performed in Germany, UK, US and the Netherlands, as well as locally at festivals such as Bluefest and Boomarang Festival, OzAsia Festival and PARRTJIMA Festival, and at the Sydney Opera House.

In 2022, he was awarded the NIMA Archie Roach Foundation Award, which recognises emerging First Nations artists who show exceptional talent and promise in their chosen field.