Australia’s Musica Viva Announces New FutureMaker

Violist and composer Matt Laing will take part in the organization’s acclaimed FutureMakers leadership initiative from 2021 to 2023

Laing will join the Partridge String Quartet in the initiative — whose program was extended to 2023 after their 2020-21 participation was disrupted by the events of COVID-19.

Established in 2015, Musica Viva’s FutureMakers program involves intensives focusing on artistic leadership, capacity building, and sector development. During the program, participants are supported to create an ambitious, full-length performance project. 

A graduate of the University of Melbourne studying both commerce and music, Laing trained as a viola player and continued to compose music. He is a recipient of the 2021 Prelude Residency through the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer House Trust.

His first commission "Out of Hibernation" was premiered by the Flinders Quartet in 2019 and was awarded the Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant. This included composition mentoring from Brett Dean in London and Berlin.

Laing is a freelance violist based in Melbourne, and plays regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), Orchestra Victoria, and as a core member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. A participant of MSO’s 2020 Young Composer program, he was selected as the orchestra’s 2021 Young Composer in Residence. 

"There are two qualities I look for in the young musicians Musica Viva mentors as part of its FutureMakers program: a certain fearlessness and widespread peer respect," said Paul Kildea, Musica Viva’s Artistic Director. 

"Violist and composer Matt Laing and the Partridge Quartet have these qualities in spades," he continued. "It is a delight and privilege to plot and plan with them their emerging careers, conscious that these plans will have a huge impact on Australia’s cultural landscape for decades to come."

To hear the FutureMakers in discussion, join their August 12, 2021 webinar here.