Dobby, the Sydney-based composer, rapper and drummer, has been chosen as the recipient of the inaugural Screen Composer Intensive by The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATISMO).
The initiative is in partnership with the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) and aims to create a pathway for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander music creators to careers in screen composition and increase their representation in the sector.
Dobby, aka Rhyan Clapham, is Filipino and Aboriginal, and a member of the Murrawarri Republic in Brewarrina, New South Wales.
He will now compose with screen music luminaries including APRA Board member Amana Brown (“Underbelly: Vanishing Act) and Antony Patros from Sonar Music (“Mystery Road”).
He will also work alongside prolific composer, orchestrator and arranger Jessica Wells from Jigsaw Music.
In addition, Dobby will spend time at Church Street Studios with long-established composer Guy Gross (“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”).
To cap it off, he will then record a screen music work at AFTRS under the supervision of Cameron Patrick, the head of music, and colleague Greg Wise.
Dobby said he’s thankful to NATISMO, AGSC, Church Street Studios and all the composers he’s met throughout the life-changing program.
“I am so gratefully thrilled to be the 2022 recipient of the NATSIMO Screen Composer Intensive program. The amazing team at NATSIMO and AGSC have done such magic work to pull these connections towards Indigenous composers such as myself, creating such pathways that are so painfully lacking in the screen composer/composing industry,” he said.
Leah Flanagan, director of NATISMO, congratulated Dobby on his selection.
“[Dobby] is not only eager to learn more about the screen composing profession and what the work entails, but is someone who will share his newfound knowledge and networks with other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music creators. It’s a meaningful opportunity that I hope is the first of many to create pathways for our composers in the screen industry,” she said.
The AGSC, meanwhile, enthusiastically welcomed Dobby to the program and flagged its hopes for further developments and progressions in this space.
“We hope that this first Screen Composer Intensive will facilitate a learning environment that is rich in skills and knowledge and that is the first of many steps towards creating more meaningful engagement between the screen industry and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander composers and musicians, as well as having culturally authentic voices for Indigenous/First Nations stories,” the organisation said.