We are thrilled to announce that the winner of the Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship for 2026 is Felix Wallis.

Felix Wallis graduated with First Class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium in 2021, where he studied under Carl Vine. Since then, he has pursued a full-time career in composition spanning contemporary classical, film, and popular music. 

In 2024, he wrote Rewilding for Omega Ensemble’s CoLAB program, premiered at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre. He also leads Miniflora, an ensemble of jazz musicians performing his works that fuse structures of American minimalism with improvisation and an electro-acoustic palette. Their debut EP, recorded at Golden Retriever Studios, is slated for release in late 2025. 

Felix has arranged strings for releases by The Kid LAROI and Cap Carter, and in 2023 released his electroacoustic single First Rites, the chamber work Reconstruction, and Four Preludes for piano. He also contributed to Music of the Sails, an immersive installation for the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary. 

In 2025, he has been orchestrating for the Ministry of Sound Classical tour while scoring the liminal horror audio drama F.A.B.R.I.C. and upcoming TV miniseries Mammals. His screen credits also include Stella and Ruth, which premiered at the Sydney Women’s International Film Festival in 2023, and More Than Human, a documentary exploring the politics of the natural world, which debuted at Antenna Documentary Festival in 2025. 

The panel have shared with us that the winning entry impressed the panel in the very specific way that the application addressed the criteria – namely showing the potential for high quality compositions for mixed ensemble. The winning candidate’s entry was “distinguished by particularly good idiomatic instrumental writing over a good variety of simpler to more complex textures, including some lovely syncopated counterpoint” and furthermore that “each piece had a convincing harmonic logic and flow”. The winning entrant was also at an appropriate state of career development which fits clearly in the “emerging” stage of a compositional journey.

Congratulations Felix, the Ensemble looks forward to working with him in 2026.