“The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy”
EMERGING COMPOSERS PATHWAYS PROJECT 2026
Meet our shortlisted composers
ADRIEL SUKUMAR
Adriel Sukumar is a young Australian composer currently based in Western Sydney. In 2025 Adriel completed his undergraduate studies in composition at the Sydney Conservatorium with first class Honours, studying under Carl Vine AO. His music has been played by various prominent ensembles including the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, New Music Ensemble, and Saxophone Orchestra; the Australian and Sydney Youth Orchestras, Steel City Strings, Ensemble Offspring, the Goldner String Quartet, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Caesura Ensemble, SAGA Collective, the Macquarie Singers, and the Choir and Organists of Saint Patrick's Cathedral Parramatta. Additionally, his music has been presented in workshops and masterclasses with the Australian String Quartet, Sydney Chamber Choir, and Finnish composer and pianist Olli Mustonen.
Adriel was awarded second prize (The Highly Commended Award) in the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra's 2025 Young Composer Award. He has also been awarded the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's 2022 Horace Keats Memorial Prize for Composition, their 2023 Frank Albert Music Prize, and their 2024 Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize.
Aside from his composing Adriel sings regularly as a Bass Scholar with the Choir of Saint Patrick's Cathedral Parramatta.JACK COLLINSON
Jack Collinson is a Perth-based composer and choral singer with a background in professional performance and a particular interest in sacred and Renaissance repertoire. Originally trained as a trumpeter, his formal studies took place across several Australian states, developing a foundation in ensemble practice, stylistic versatility, and the practical musicianship that informs his writing for voices today.
Jack has sung since childhood and has held positions in a range of choirs, including work under Nicholas Bannan with the Winthrop Singers and ongoing roles in the liturgical choirs of Christ Church Claremont and St John’s Fremantle. This experience in active church music-making shapes his compositional priorities: clarity of text, singable lines, and harmonic writing that supports congregational and liturgical purpose while allowing expressive nuance.
His current artistic focus is the creation of new sacred choral music for intermediate to experienced church choirs. Particularly works that respect historical practice while engaging with contemporary musical language in an accessible, text-driven way.ANNA HIRST FRIEDMAN
Anna Hirst Friedman is a Composer & Producer focusing on themes of nature, motherhood and conflict. She completed her composition degree in Sydney before relocating to the UK, where she immersed herself in Hindustani music and composition. She studied classical tabla intensively with Benares Gharana and toured internationally with the Middle Eastern band Rivers of Babylon. In recent years, Anna has returned to composing, creating a diverse body of work across orchestra, string quartet, chamber ensemble, and vocal music.
In 2024, Anna won the portrait composition prize for the acclaimed classical group Notturno, known for their specialization in traditional instruments. 2025 marked an exciting period for Anna, with four performances scheduled and two grants awarded. Amidah: A Silent Prayer premiered in March at the Goethe Institute.
Inspired by Jessica Chapnik Kahn’s poetry book MADRE, Anna created choral arrangements for several poems, which premiered in May 2025 at Sydney’s Poetica, as well as being performed at TEDx Sydney. Anna and Jessica embarked on their first collaboration with their commissioned work The Fire Always Says Yes that debuted at Sydney Opera House in October 2025, performed by the acclaimed Hourglass Ensemble.EMMA WARBURTON
Emma Warburton has a Bachelor of Music (Degree wih Honours) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where she competed studies in composition alongside her major in voice. Emma has a long-standing interest in composition, winning the songwriting section of the 1999 Newcastle Young Writers’ Competition with her song World Peace for voice and piano.
As a singer, Emma has extensive experience in performing sacred vocal music. She was a choral scholar with the Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne, from 2014 to 2020, and is currently a lay clerk and the leading musician at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, a soloist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Melbourne, a chorister in Ensemble Gombert, and a soloist and chorister in the St John’s Southgate Bach Cantata Program.
In recent years, Emma has been composing and arranging sacred vocal music, including a set of Preces and Responses for choir and a solo chant, Ecce Agnus Dei, which she performed in a Eucharist at St Paul’s Cathedral in January 2026. In July 2025, together with organist Mark Slavec, Emma also performed her arrangement for solo voice and organ of Antony Pitts’s setting of Rock of Ages, dedicated to her late friend and colleague Lachlan Redd, sub-organist of St Paul’s Cathedral.
