Meet the 2026 Ian Potter Emerging Performers Fellows

Now entering its third year, the Ian Potter Emerging Performers Fellowship program is excited to announce its latest Fellows: Matt Laing (viola/composer) and Simone Slattery (violin).

The Emerging Performers Fellowships program is a collaboration between The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). It was launched in 2024 with the aim of helping ANAM alumni build sustainable careers in performance beyond the traditional orchestral or teaching pathways normally afforded to them.

The program awards two fellowships annually until 2028, providing talented and dedicated musicians with $100,000 and tailored mentoring over two years, supporting their growth as independent performance practitioners.

Matt Laing. Image: Sharon Gertner.

Fellow Matt Laing is an acclaimed Australian composer and violist. Laing was a former recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artist Grant, which enabled him to undertake a mentorship with master composer Brett Dean in Berlin, Germany.

Laing has received commissions from leading ensembles including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Australian String Quartet and Musica Viva Australia. His works have been performed across Australia and the UK and featured at the International Double Reed Society Conference in 2023.

He has held residencies at Bermagui Four Winds Festival, All That We Are in Hobart, and the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer House Trust, and was Young Composer in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2021.

As a performer, Laing has performed at multiple festivals and freelances widely. He has regularly performed with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, where he served as Acting Associate Principal Viola in 2025.

With the fellowship, Laing has plans to publish his composition folio, produce more recordings, and ultimately advance his career both domestically and internationally.

Simone Slattery. Image: Keith Saunders.

Fellow Simone Slattery is a versatile artist known for her work as a performer, composer, curator, and sound and visual designer. Her art seeks to move, inspire, and connect audiences to what it means to be human.

A former Churchill Fellow, Arts SA Fellowship recipient and a PhD graduate, Slattery performs nationally and internationally on modern and baroque violin. Previously, she studied at the University of Adelaide Elder Conservatorium and ANAM and has undertaken mentorships across Australia, Canada, America and Europe.

Slattery was a former 2012 Emerging Artist Grant recipient who used the grant funds to travel to Canada, the USA and the UK to embark on a series of masterclasses and private lessons.

In 2017, Slattery co-founded Bowerbird Collective, an arts organisation that seeks to explore links between art and science. The Collective's works have won several awards, including the Independent Arts Foundation Award for Innovation, and have reached the top of the ARIA charts.

The fellowship will enable Slattery to expand her work as an independent artist and Co-Artistic Director of Bowerbird Collective, creating new works and performances across regional Australia while championing environmental conservation and the protection of endangered species. 

Read more about Laing and Slattery’s ambitions for the fellowship.