Work TBA
Composed for Helena Burns
Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) as part of the ANAM Set 2026 and written for Helena Burns, to be premiered during ANAM’s 2026 recital season at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne.
The 2026 ANAM Set commissions are supported by the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation.
About the composer:
Ronan Apcar (alum, 2024) is an Australian pianist, musician, and composer with a reputation for versatility, edge, and tenacity. His experience and fluency across all kinds of music - jazz to the avant-garde, contemporary art music to house - translates into his exciting work as a musician. Described as "a force to be reckoned with" (ClassikON) and “a talent beyond his age” (Limelight Magazine), Ronan's musicmaking spans a diverse set of practices including performing, composing, arranging, improvising, curating, and collaborating.
Ronan's works tend to fall into one of two categories: serious works often concerned with pathos, and light-hearted, sometimes silly works. His composition output features many small chamber works and pieces for solo piano, as well as a growing collection of improvised electronic works as a part of the ANU Love Supreme grant. Ronan also creates collaboratively in settings both musical (especially as a part of the improvised-music project Tsiran) and interdisciplinary (such as with dancers, photographers, videographers, and DJs).
Ronan has been privileged to receive commissions and performances of his work from organisations such as the National Carillon, Canberra International Music Festival, and Inspire Music Australia. His work Three Stages of Accepting an Ugly Self-Portrait was included in the repertoire for and performed at the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, and his work Preludes won the 2018 Willgoss Choral Composition Prize. Ronan has also undertaken residencies at Bundanon and The Old School, Mt Wilson.
As a performer, Ronan is known for his dynamic and intense playing that goes beyond traditional pianism and his thoughtful and unconventional programming, often writing and arranging music for his program and tying together disparate works into a unified theme as a part of his curation practice.
Ronan is based in NSW, on the lands of the Eora Nation.
Instagram: @ronanhatesmusic
Image credit: Rowan Davie, supplied by composer.