Young Composers Recognised in 2026 ASME Queensland Competition
“Music is the shorthand of emotion” - Leo Tolstoy
Nudgee News
Composing Their Own Stories
Perhaps that is what makes songwriting so powerful. A chord, a melody, or a line of lyrics can begin as something deeply personal, yet still find meaning in the experience of someone else.
For Nudgee students Ethan (Year 10) and Eddie (Year 12), that process of turning thoughts and experiences into music has led to recognition in the 2026 Australian Society for Music Education Queensland Young Composers Competition.
One of Queensland’s longest-running student composition competitions, the program gives young musicians the opportunity to share original work beyond their school community and have it heard and adjudicated by professional composers.
Finding the Right Words
For Ethan, an idea that began quietly on guitar would ultimately become Wrong Girl, awarded 1st Place in the Senior Secondary Songwriting category. The achievement also saw Ethan receive the Elizabeth Pratt Memorial Prize and a professional mobile recording session with Hazzardsound.
The song explores the experience of wanting someone while knowing, somewhere beneath it all, that they may not be right for you.
This song started when I was playing around with some chords on my guitar and a melody came to me, from there, the ideas kind of flowed naturally, and I started to develop an idea for what I wanted the lyrics to be about.
The Work Behind the Song
Like many pieces of music, however, the finished song did not arrive all at once. Its lyrics, structure, and melody continued to change throughout the writing process, right up until Ethan entered the studio to record the vocals.
Perhaps the most difficult part was also the most important: finding the right words.
“I wanted the song to tell a story and feel genuine without making the lyrics too complicated or forcing lines just because they rhymed,” Ethan said.
“I rewrote different parts until they felt natural to sing and worked with the melody. I’ve found that sometimes the best thing is to leave a song for a while and come back to it, because it becomes much easier to hear what is and isn’t working.”
There is something particularly honest in that process. Writing original music asks students to make decisions about what they want to say, what matters to them and, sometimes, how much of themselves they are prepared to place into a piece of work.
Ethan drew on influences across several genres, combining elements of contemporary pop with a subtle country influence. At the centre of the song, though, was his desire for the lyrics to carry meaning.
Receiving first place was therefore about more than the result itself.
“It means a lot to have Wrong Girl recognised, especially because songwriting is something I really enjoy and want to keep pursuing,” Ethan said.
“I’ve been writing more and more of my own music over the last couple of years, so having other people connect with something I’ve written is really rewarding. Winning through a school submission also makes it pretty special, and it gives me more confidence to keep writing, recording and releasing my own music.”
Where the Music Leads
For Eddie (Year 12), the beginning looked a little different. His original composition, Fan On Three, received a Highly Commended, but unlike Ethan’s song, it did not begin with a particular story or defined concept.
Honestly, there wasn’t one specific initial idea, I kind of just started playing guitar and seeing what came out of it. I started exploring concepts of growing up, fearing loss, and searching for meaning. Those ideas then gradually became the main themes of the song.
Finding His Voice
It is a fitting process for a Year 12 student approaching the end of his time at school. Themes of change, uncertainty, and growing up found their way naturally into Eddie’s writing. Eddie described the process as deliberately unhurried, spending time developing the guitar parts while searching for lyrics that genuinely belonged with the music.
“The hardest part was making the lyrics match what I was trying to do musically,” he said.“I found that just taking my time to develop lyrics that accurately captured the musical themes worked the best.”
Influenced by indie folk and artists such as John Mayer, Eddie sought to create something reflective and understated. Like Ethan, he found that receiving recognition for something so personal carried a different kind of significance.
“It makes me feel like those ideas I touched on do connect with other people, giving me confidence to continue writing and experimenting with my music,” Eddie said.
And perhaps that is ultimately what makes these achievements so meaningful.
Original composition asks students to listen differently, experiment, rewrite, and sit with an idea until it begins to say what they hoped it might. It requires vulnerability to place something of themselves into their work and then allow others to hear it.
Within Nudgee’s Performance Music Program, that process sits alongside performance, rehearsal and technical development. Students are encouraged not only to play music well, but to create, interpret, collaborate, and develop an artistic voice of their own.
For Ethan and Eddie, that voice has taken shape through two very different songs, each grounded in personal experience and shaped through patience, reflection, and experimentation.
Perhaps Tolstoy’s words are fitting after all. Music can give emotion a form that words alone sometimes cannot. In doing so, it can take something deeply personal and make it meaningful to someone else.
Congratulations to Ethan and Eddie on this wonderful recognition, and for contributing so thoughtfully to the growing culture of original music within Nudgee’s Performance Music Program.
Mr Will Duffield
Performing Arts Development Manager