Wayne Neilson : Associate Artist
Artist website: https://www.wayne-neilson.com/
Wayne Neilson (b. 1966) is a Tasmanian-based freelance composer, orchestrator, arranger, and music educator whose work spans orchestral, chamber, vocal, and choral repertoire. Neilson studied composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Newcastle Campus, under the direction of Nigel Butterley, whose mentorship was formative in shaping his compositional voice.
In 1988, Neilson worked closely with Butterley as his composer's assistant in preparing the conductor's score and orchestral parts for Butterley's opera Lawrence Hargrave Flying Alone. The following year, he composed NEXUS 1 for the Seymour Group 2MBS FM / Seymour Ensemble Young Composers Workshop, a chamber work featuring flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and piano. His first song cycle, Of Fire and Ice, was premiered in 1990 at the Canberra School of Music by soprano Sarah Louise Owens and pianist Nigel Butterley.
Neilson's orchestral work From Valley to Summit won the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Heyward Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2019. The work received its world premiere at Symphony Under the Stars in Launceston in February 2020 and was subsequently recorded by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the ABC recording studio in Hobart in 2021. In 2022, two movements from his string quartet Anima were selected for the Flinders Quartet Ascend Composer Program, where the work was premiered and professionally recorded.
Recent works include the wind quintet Pandemos, composed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the acapella choral work Listen to the Wind for SSAATTBB voices.
Neilson's artistic practice is grounded in sonic storytelling. As he states, 'I create worlds through sonic storytelling'. Influenced by composers Debussy, Stravinsky, and Ravel, as well as visual artists Monet and Kandinsky, he perceives the environment through an emotional lens. His music is driven by a deep engagement with emotional narrative, colour, and gesture, translating lived experience and environment into sound. Neilson declares, 'I perceive the world through an emotional lens and compose works that are highly animated, expressive, and emotionally charged'. A defining aspect of his aesthetic is the creation of new works through historical forms, a quality exemplified in From Valley to Summit and Anima, both representative of his compositional style. Across orchestral, chamber, and vocal genres, Neilson's aim is to create music that invites listeners into immersive, emotionally resonant experiences.
Biography provided by the composer — current to January 2026