about

Asher is an acclaimed and emerging Australian composer and conductor now based in London. Their professional career began in 2019 with the commission of Mano mee taeol, for treble chorus, and they have since developed into an innovative and authentic voice in contemporary music. 

A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship at the Royal College of Music, London, their current undergraduate studies have encompassed a long residency with the Sonora Quartet, collaborations with emerging artists Rieko Makita, Patricia Gomes and Christina Achim, and the commission of several solo, chamber and large ensemble works. Recordings and performances of their works have included members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring and Gondwana Choirs, as well as candidates for the AMEB and International Baccalaureate examinations. In 2024, their string ensemble work i am never without it was premiered by the Sirius Orchestra under emerging conductor Alex Mackinder.

In 2021, Asher was recognised for their work Prayer in F with second place in the Monash University Emerging Composer Award, and the same work went on to win the Vocal and Spirit of Chamber Music awards in the national chamber music competition, Strike A Chord. They also hold a Trailblazer Award in their home state of New South Wales for outstanding achievements alongside school studies, awarded for their professional accomplishments during the 2020-21 lockdowns. Asher’s percussion work, Breeze on the Still of a River, was recorded by acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes and distributed to secondary students across Australia as part of the digital lockdown provisions for Australian Music Day 2021. 

Asher studies composition with William Mival and conducting with Toby Purser, and combines these passions into innovative performance collaborations with fellow composers and performers, advocating strongly for the vitality of contemporary music in classical programmes worldwide. Educated initially in the diverse Australian musical tradition, Asher’s music is recognised and loved by global audiences for its profound emotional depth, inviting warmth and considered simplicity. 

Asher is honoured to be a Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholar at the RCM.

Credits and awards:

2024

• Galaxian Variations (piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass) premiered by Rieko Makita and the Triton Quintet at the Royal College of Music

2023

• November (string quartet) premiered by the Sonora Quartet 

• Performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and No. 3 with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, London

• Away; a suite (mezzosoprano & string quartet) premiered by Lucy Gibbs and the Sonora Quartet in St Mary Abbot's, Kensington

• O Rest (solo cello & ensemble) commissioned for premiere at the Royal College of Music, London by Patricia Gomes, Alexander Boyd-Bench and students from the College

2022

• Recipient of a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London

• Performance of William Barton's Of the Earth and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 In C minor/Eb major with Simone Young and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

• Awarded High Distinction in the AMEB Grade 8 performance exams (Voice)

• Composer-in-residence for the RCM's Sonora Quartet

• A few metres from eternity (solo piano) performed by Daniel Xia, as part of a collaboration with the HeadOn international photography competition

2021

• Canto (string quartet) performed by the MLC School Recording Ensemble, nominated for the NSW Encore showcase

• When David Heard (mezzosoprano and string quartet) performed by the composer and the MLC School Recording Ensemble, nominated for the NSW Encore showcase

• Prayer in F (SSMMAA sextet) performed by the MLC School Vocal Consort, nominated for the NSW Encore showcase, runner-up in the Monash University Emerging Composer Prize, Vocal Prize and Spirit of Chamber Music Award in Musica Viva's Strike A Chord competition

• Top 10 Year 12 Trailblazer Award for achievements outside the curriculum

• Australian Music Centre Award for Outstanding Work in Composition (MLC School)

• Grosman Trophy for all-round musicianship (MLC School)

• J&N Murphy Prize for Music (MLC School)

• School Dux for HSC Music 2 and Music Extension (MLC School)

• Fifth in state for HSC Music Extension (NESA)

2020

• Breeze on the Still of a River (vibraphone and sus. cymbal) performed by Claire Edwardes (included in the digital education package for Australian Music Day)

• Score for We Make Our Own (directed by Amelie Hartfield) 15:06 [release still pending]

• I Felt a Funeral (mezzosoprano with accompaniment) performed by Asher Joyce and Cynthia Hu [release still pending]

2019

• Mano mee taeol (SSAA) performed by the MLC School Chamber Choir at Music Live

• City Dances (baroque ensemble: soprano recorder, viola and bassoon) workshopped and recorded by members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Conservatorium

• Gloria Orbis (orchestra) [release still pending]

• Cycles (clarinet and string quartet) [release still pending]

• The Gift (mixed voice ensemble) performed by members of Gondwana Choirs [release still pending]

• Performance of Brett Dean's Vexations and Devotions with Gondwana Choirs and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Berlin Philharmonie

2018

• To dream or not to dream (soprano and piano/guitar) performed by the composer, state finalist in Sport for Jove's NSW Shakespeare Carnival

2017

• Militat omnis amans (soprano, chorus and piano) performed by the composer, state finalist in Sport for Jove's NSW Shakespeare Carnival