Fellowships
The Classical:NEXT Fellowship Programme brings together outstanding early-career talents with Classical:NEXT ‘Insiders’, to facilitate their engagement with the Classical:NEXT community onsite.
Read below for our 2025 Fellows and Partner Institutions. To stay up to date with the callout for next year, please subscribe to our newsletter.
2025 Partner Institutions
The Classical:NEXT Fellowship Programme successfully launched in 2016 with the support of PRS for Music Foundation and Codarts Rotterdam. Both institutions selected three exceptional young composers and performing artists who had the opportunity to attend Classical:NEXT and connect with over 1,000 classical music professionals. Since then, the programme has continued to evolve and support emerging talent, with its eighth edition taking place in 2025.
Each Fellow is paired with a seasoned professional at Classical:NEXT, receiving invaluable advice and introductions to important contacts both within their field and in the broader Classical:NEXT community. This unique mentorship builds lasting connections, helping the next generation to shape the future of classical and art music.
Classical:NEXT is proud to be partnering with seven internationally-renowned institutions for the 2025 edition.
Australian Music Centre, Sydney, Australia
Australian involvement in the Classical:NEXT Fellowship Programme is facilitated through the Australian Music Centre. The Australian Music Centre is the national service organisation dedicated to the promotion and support of art music in Australia. At the heart of their mission is a commitment to the representation, advocacy, promotion and support of Australian composers and their music. Their important work covers contemporary classical, contemporary jazz and improvised music, experimental music, and sound art. They provide career support, manage professional development programs and presents annual and biennial awards. The Australian Music Centre celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2025.
Fellows
- Aksuna (Natasha Lin)
- Connor D’Netto
Black Lives in Music, London, United Kingdom
Talent is distributed evenly, opportunities are not! Black Lives in Music addresses the current inequality of opportunity for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse people aspiring to be artists or professionals in the Jazz and Classical music industry. Black Lives in Music believes in real equality for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse people to learn musical instruments at grassroots level and to allow them to pursue and realise their musical ambitions.
Black Lives in Music is made up of a number of partners who are all working towards the same goal: to dismantle structural racism in our industry. We aim to support the industry in providing better professional opportunities. We also want to achieve equality for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse professionals at all levels and in all areas of the UK Jazz and Classical industry. Representation matters, we need to take action together and create a level playing field for everyone to have an equal chance to succeed.
Black Lives in Music stands for equal opportunities – for Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse people to be able to work successfully in the UK music industry without being the subject of discrimination.
Fellows
- Josie Campbell
Conseil Québécois de la Musique, Quebec, Canada
The Quebec Music Council (CQM) is a non-profit organisation bringing together Quebec’s professional organisations, ensembles and individuals working in the fields of jazz, classical, contemporary and world music. The CQM offers individual and collective services to its community, supporting the music community’s local, national and international presence. The Quebec Music Council promotes concert music by awarding the Prix Opus to Quebec’s best musical achievements.
Fellows
- Nadia Monczak, Ensemble Mistral
- Gabriel Paquin-Buki, Oktopus
- Marie-Chantal Leclair, Quasar
University of Music and Performing Arts (KUG), Graz, Austria
The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) has around 2,200 students at its Graz and Oberschützen campuses and is an internationally renowned university offering a wide range of courses in music and performing arts. Located in the heart of Europe, we connect with the cultural heritage of our region while helping to shape current representations in contemporary arts. We are involved in international developments in the arts, education and research, and promote the value of art, culture and academic scholarship in society. Here at KUG, we focus on two areas: the concept of artistic citizenship and connecting different musical traditions with innovation. Our work as a university is based on top-quality teaching, development and exploration of the arts (EEK*) and academic scholarship. We emphasize on the interweaving of artistic practice, EEK and scholarship. Teachers and students collaborate as partners in a joint process of knowledge acquisition and development. As a place of education and as an employer, we see ourselves as part of an open, diverse society. We believe that a conscious, sensitive approach towards gender, diversity and sustainability has great potential for the transformation of the arts and culture sector and the further development of our institution.
Fellows
- Laura Marjanovic
- Taku Hayasaka
- Tobias Kochseder
PRS Foundation, London, UK
PRS Foundation is the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development. Since 2000 PRS Foundation has given more than £35 million to over 7,300 new music initiatives by awarding grants and leading partnership programmes that support music sector development. Widely respected as an adventurous and proactive funding body, PRS Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity – from composer residencies and commissions to a network of talent development partners and showcases in the UK and overseas.
Fellows
- Ailis Ni Riain
- Yshani Perinpanayagam
- Lara Agar
New World Symphony, Florida, USA
The New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy (NWS), prepares graduates of music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles. Since its co-founding in 1987 by Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Lin and Ted Arison, NWS has helped launch the careers of nearly 1,300 alumni worldwide. In fall 2022 Stéphane Denève was named Artistic Director of the New World Symphony. A laboratory for the way music is taught, presented and experienced, the New World Symphony consists of young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years. The fellowship program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, professional development training and personalized experiences working with leading guest conductors, soloists and visiting faculty.
Fellows
- India Hooi
University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, North Carolina, USA
The University of North Carolina School of Music offers a transformative conservatory experience that combines intensive individual study under artist mentors with a rich variety of performance opportunities — more than 200 recitals, concerts and operas each year, including collaborations with other UNCSA arts schools. You will attend weekly master classes taught by distinguished guest artists, rehearse and perform in state-of-the-art facilities and “gig” as a professional musician in Winston-Salem.
In addition to our competitive music school undergraduate and graduate programs, we’re proud to offer one of the nation’s only four-year residential high school programs. The School of Music is also home to the renowned A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, a tuition-free graduate-level professional training ground for exceptional young vocalists.
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts was established in 1993 to strengthen the arts by initiating and incubating new ideas within the various constituencies and settings of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). By leveraging the extraordinary talents and creative energies of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to bring distinction to UNCSA, the Kenan Institute acts as a springboard to the broader creative community.
Fellows
- Baron Thor Young
- Paulina E. Pietras
