Author: Linda Morris, Arts Editor, SMH

It might have begun as a punchline, but Oliver John Cameron has successfully turned an irreverent university chamber musical about Pauline Hanson into a serious career as a contemporary composer.

A decade ago, Cameron was creator of The Colour Orange, an eight-track musical satire based on highlights of Hanson’s political journey. As bill posters cheekily declared: “One Woman. One Nation.”

That show serendipitously led to Adelaide Fringe and more recently Cameron’s selection for a “finishing school” for Australia’s next generation of composers with Omega Ensemble – a contemporary chamber outfit – as an inaugural recipient of Omega’s new Composer Accelerator Residency in partnership with the Bundanon Trust this June.

Now, Cameron is developing a chamber piece that will serve as an unlikely fusion of pop and opera with a touch of Eurovision. He hopes to take it overseas.

“It’s a work about a reality television episode,” Cameron says. “The biggest pop star in the world is retiring, but she must choose her successor through a televised competition. It’s a reality episode played out in opera form.”

Seeking a style that is both poly-stylistic and referential, Cameron’s score weaves together unexpected threads, with nods to everything from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Cameron is observing Omega’s first CoLAB workshop for 2026 at Opera Australia, where this year’s crop of four composers is benefiting from the guidance of Sydney Conservatorium of Music deputy dean Matthew Hindson. The ensemble is workshopping a composition by Beth Roche titled Lambton Worm – an ode to a mythic battle between a villager and a giant dragon – that will premiere in August.

Omega Ensemble’s founder and artistic director, David Rowden, says the program is designed to support musicians fresh out of the conservatorium who often find themselves “waiting for the phone to ring”. It’s about future-proofing Australia’s leading composers, ensuring they are given a sustainable path to the global stage. “If only we could do more,” Rowden says, ruefully.

The initiative, now in its sixth year, pairs emerging talent with world-class mentors such as Nico Muhly, Nigel Westlake, Missy Mazzoli and Elena Kats-Chernin. Ensemble Offspring also has a program for emerging composers.

Last year, Cameron and fellow composers Alexandra Mison, Cassie To and Callum O’Reilly beat more than 100 applicants for the Omega program, which is designed to be a direct, structured answer to the historic challenge of nurturing new voices.

Omega says its program’s success has been so pronounced, and demand so high, that it will expand to Melbourne next year.

This year’s cohort – Roche, Robert McIntyre, Jessie Leov and Thomas Misson – are each developing a commission for Omega during their nine-month mentorship.

The impact of the program is seen in alumni such as Melbourne-based Alex Turley, who was recently commissioned by the Grand Teton Music Festival.

“The opportunities which CoLAB help create are akin to a graduate from a national screenwriting program being plucked by Martin Scorsese to write his next film,” says Omega’s newly appointed chief executive, Michael Napthali.

“While we are yet to see that happen in film, the equivalent is happening in music thanks to CoLAB.”

Napthali notes that even household names like Beethoven and Brahms once required the support of patrons who believed in the capacity of the “new” to create something important.

“For donors who recognise the program’s importance, this is not passive giving. It is participation in creation. The patrons of Beethoven did not know they were underwriting immortality.”

Arts education is a key objective of federal arts minister Tony Burke’s review into its national arts policy, Revive. Omega’s CoLAB is not government funded.

Hindson says composers are learning more than just notation; they are learning the psychology of collaboration. “There is a huge difference between sitting in front of a laptop and getting into a rehearsal room,” he says.

“While our universities do a great job at training the next generation of composers, the cream of the cream for any composer is in getting your music played by outstanding players such as Omega Ensemble. There’s really nothing better for an emerging composer. It’s where they learn the most. Books and other composers’ scores can only go so far. This is the real world.”

As for the inspiration that started it all, the real Pauline Hanson never did see Cameron’s musical. “The conceit of the show was that it took a while for Pauline to arrive, so she was played by all the cast members who eventually all become Pauline,” Cameron says.

While he is tempted to revisit the world of populist politics, his focus remains on his new opera. “I like to write many things at once,” he says. “That way, they all speak to each other.”

Omega Ensemble’s NEW NOW showcase is at Sydney’s ACO on the Pier on August 14, 2026.

https://www.omegaensemble.com.au/new-now-2026