The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra today announced Melbourne-based musician Alex Turley as its 2022 Cybec Young Composer in Residence.

Accepting the highly-acclaimed position, Alex Turley said he was looking forward to getting started.

‘It is an honour and an incredible privilege to be offered this residency with the MSO. This is a valuable opportunity for me to work with the Orchestra in a sustained capacity over the next few years, developing several works while learning and growing as an artist.

‘The MSO is an industry leader in doing the vital work of supporting and nurturing young artists like myself, and I commend the way that they are increasingly finding ways to expand the diversity of voices in the orchestral music scene,’ said Alex.

Alongside Alex Turley, the MSO welcomes composers Angus Davison (NSW), Melissa Douglas (VIC), Natalie Nicolas (NSW) and John Rotar (QLD) as this year’s participants in the MSO’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program.

Each young composer will spend 12 months being mentored by a leading Australian composer and attending workshops with the MSO Library and musicians. The young composers will each write a 10-minute work for orchestra, which will be performed in a special showcase in early 2022.

The Cybec Young Composer in Residence and the Cybec 21st Century Composers Program is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Cybec Foundation. The Foundation also supports the Orchestra’s Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair, currently held by MSO Assistant Principal Cello, Nicholas Bochner.

Since the Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program was introduced in 2003, over 60 emerging composers from across Australia have had works commissioned and performed by the MSO. Most have continued onto widely diverse creative practices and the MSO has offered several subsequent commissions to graduates of the program. Most recently, the MSO’s 2021 season features a series of specially-commissioned concertos composed by Cybec alumni – Holly Harrison, May Lyon, Anne Cawrse and Matthew Laing.