About.
Meta Cohen (they/them/she/her) is a composer, sound designer and dramaturg with work spanning music, theatre and interdisciplinary art. They are currently based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, on unceded Yaluk-ut Weelam land.
Meta's music has been commissioned and performed in diverse venues across Australia, the UK and the US. In their composition work, Meta particularly loves to explore the properties and theatrical potential of the voice, sometimes combining this with electroacoustic elements.
Meta often prioritises LGBTQIA+ work where possible. In 2022, they were a commissioned composer on the first queer classical album in Australia's history (Spectrum: Divisi Chamber Singers) and composed a new work in partnership with Homophonic, documenting Australia's LGBTQIA+ histories in song. Meta's new queer song cycle a love is a love is a love, commissioned by ABC Classic, was released in June 2023.
Other works of note include Caedo, which was awarded in the Leonardo Da Vinci International Composition Competition in Florence, Italy, and Swerve, which was a finalist in the 2023 APRA AMCOS/Australian Music Centre Art Music Awards for Work of the Year: Choral.
Meta has applied her compositional training to her work as a theatre maker, sound designer and dramaturg. In particular, she is interested in the intersection of theatricality and sound, specialising in sonic dramaturgy and musical thinking in theatre making. Recent credits include DFLTLX, or Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (composer/sound designer/dramaturg, dir. Alyson Campbell), and Hedda GablerGablerGabler (dramaturg, dir. Mary Angley). In 2022, Meta worked on the UK/European premiere of promiscuous/cities (dir. Alyson Campbell) as part of the British Council's UK/Australia season in London.
Meta is a resident dramaturg in the Theatre Works She Writes Collective. They hold a Master of Dramaturgy from the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Music Studies from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Meta is especially passionate about bringing queer, interdisciplinary and sound-driven work to the stage, and welcomes collaborations in these areas. Please get in touch.
Photography: James Reiser
‘Meta Cohen deserves recognition as an artist of the highest order, with a strikingly original voice, who is working consistently to tell stories they genuinely connect with, and which we all need to have told’
- Steven Hodgson, Artistic Director, The Consort of Melbourne
Latest News
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Meta's work featured on ABC's 'Women of Note, vol. 6' Album
This album includes “Meta Cohen's extraordinary song cycle ‘a love is a love is a love’: an affirmation of sexual desire and romantic love, but also of the myriad other kinds of queer connections”. As a nonbinary composer, Meta is thrilled to be featured in the company of such extraordinary women.
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Finalist in Australian Art Music Awards
Meta’s work ‘Swerve’ is a Finalist for Work of the Year (Choral) at the 2023 APRA AMCOS/Australian Music Centre Art Music Awards.
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Meta on ABC's The Music Show
Meta talks about being a finalist in the 2023 Art Music Awards and their ABC-commissioned song cycle ‘a love is a love is a love’.
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'a love is a love is a love' released by ABC Classic
Meta’s new queer song cycle, ‘a love is a love is a love’, has been released by ABC Classic. The cycle was commissioned as part of the ABC’s inaugural composer commissioning initiative.
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Part of Australian Section submission to World New Music Days
Meta’s piece ‘we’ is part of the official Australian Section submission to the ISCM 2023 World New Music Days in South Africa, along with Ben Carey, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Angus Davison, Dominic Flynn and Cat Hope.
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Third Prize in the 1st Leonardo Da Vinci International Composition Competition
Meta’s piece ‘Caedo’ has won third prize in the Third Prize in the 1st Leonardo Da Vinci International Composition Competition in Florence, Italy.
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Featured Artist for Australian Music Month
Meta is a featured artist across the ABC and Australian Music Centre for Australian Music Month 2022
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Homophonic! RESPECT Project
Meta was recently featured on ABC news for their work as part of the Homophonic! RESPECT Project. Meta’s piece ‘Swerve’ was created for this project, which forges connections between generations and documents the lives of LGBTQI+ regional Victorians through song.
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The intersection of queerness, theatricality and sound
Meta recently did an interview about their artistic practice with the University of Melbourne
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ABC Classic Commission
Meta has been commissioned as part of the recent ABC Classic initiative to write a new song cycle for Divisi Chamber Singers and pianist Coady Green. Meta will create a new song cycle for vocal consort and piano, in celebration of diversity in Australian LGBTIQ+ experiences.
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CutCommon Magazine - Compose Queer
Meta’s work with Divisi was recently featured in CutCommon Magazine. This article deals particularly with Meta’s involvement in Compose Queer and upcoming ABC Classic Commission
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Australian Art Music Playlist
Meta’s piece ‘(i)dentity’ was recently included in Limelight’s Australian Art Music Playlist.
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Bringing queer stories into the mainstream of classical music
Feature on Compose Queer and Meta’s involvement in University of Melbourne news
Latest Media