Michael Bertram Composition Award 2026

The Michael Bertram Composition Award presents In the Belly of a Dragon.

Melba Opera Trust is proud to offer the Michael Bertram Composition Award, a biennial initiative established to encourage and support contemporary operatic and vocal composition in the classical tradition.

Supported by the award, inaugural recipient Lewis Ingham has composed a song cycle, In the Belly of a Dragon, exploring themes of ecology and family memory through a distinctly Australian lens.

Developed in collaboration with 2026 Melba Artists, the work will receive its premiere in the Primrose Potter Salon at Melbourne Recital Centre.

Presented by Melba Opera Trust in partnership with Melbourne Recital Centre

Tickets

Tickets to this event are free, however booking is required.

Please note, seating in the Primrose Potter Salon is General Admission.

Delivery Fees may apply. A ticket limit of six is in place online to ensure fair ticket access for all. Want to bring a bigger party? Call our Box Office during business hours on (03) 9699 3333 to book.

Artists

Lewis Ingham composer
Sophie Blades soprano
Zachary Hamilton-Russell piano

About the Artists

Lewis Ingham is an Australian composer based in Ballarat and Melbourne (VIC). His compositional voice is tinged with a modernist aesthetic, but his music is very much for the present era, often exploring themes of climate and ecology. Lewis' compositions have been admired for their depth in instrumental colour and harmony, and have been performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, the Australian Youth Orchestra, Arcadia Winds, and Hypercube (USA).

Recognised for his talents through numerous awards, scholarships, and commissions, Lewis creates depth and detail within his compositions by slowly unfurling and transforming melodic gestures within the web of his personal and defined harmonic language. The innate delicacy and intricacy within his music is apparent in his compositions for both small and large instrumental forces.

Lewis is a current PhD candidate at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne) under the tutelage of acclaimed Australian composer Elliott Gyger. Lewis' research is concerned with contextualising how his compositional voice and the ecological themes he explores in his music fits into the broader landscape of Australian art music.

Soprano Sophie Blades has just completed a Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has sung roles such as Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld), Adina (The Elixir of Love) and Theodora, as well as creating the roles of Mara, Mum and Snake Skin 1 in the quadruple bill Mother (Sydney Conservatorium of Music and NIDA, directed by Lindy Hume). Her solo concert highlights include Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Stella Natalis by Karl Jenkins. Sophie is the current recipient of the Nance Grant AM MBE Opera Scholarship and the Eleanor Blakemore Opera Society Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust.

Zachary Hamilton-Russell completed his Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he majored in classical piano performance, studying with Max Cooke OAM. He has collaborated with singers from companies such as Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera, accompanied groups like the Australian Boys Choir, and worked with students from the major tertiary music institutions around Melbourne. He is also a church musician, currently serving as the Director of Music and Organist at St John’s Toorak. Zachary is the recipient of the Margaret Schofield Opera Scholarship and the Southey Shelmerdine Repetiteur Scholarship with Melba Opera Trust for 2026.