Abigail Lui is a Brisbane-based composer and violinist inspired by the stories that help us make sense of the world. A recipient of ABC Classic’s Composer Commissioning Fund (2024) and winner of Adelaide Chamber Music School’s String Quartet Composition Prize (2022), she is fast gaining a reputation for bold and intuitive writing that’s equally lucid in concert hall and community.2024 has seen her string quartet Colour of Time recorded by Amiti Quartet for ABC Classic, piano trio Wayfarers recorded by Cerulean Collective for release through Corella Recordings, and on the choral-music side, a new piece for Voices of Birralee inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s artistic practice, and lyric-writing commission composed in collaboration with Elena Kats-Chernin. She has taken part in composition programs with the Australian Youth Orchestra (2024), Queensland Youth Orchestra (2023), Topology (2022-23), and Singapore-based choir Vox Camerata (2022-23). Her music has also been performed by Brisbane Chamber Choir, Lumens, Birralee Singers, and Vocal Australia, and she has written and performed music for films (Nosferatu and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Abigail is studying composition with Robert Davidson and violin with Courtenay Cleary, and previously Adam Chalabi, through a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and Science at the University of Queensland. Her Honours research explores how violin performance knowledge can enrich compositional practice through personal study and collaboration. Other composition mentors include Lachlan Skipworth, Paul Dean, Cameron Patrick, Nicole Murphy, Corrina Bonshek, and Erik Griswold. She is an Associate with the Australian Music Centre.Photo (right) by Captured Muses

Opening of Westerlies (3rd movement), from rehearsal. Video provided with permission from Amiti String Quartet.Performers: Lili Stephens (violin 1), Jasmine Milton (violin 2), Helena Burns (viola), Erna Lai (cello)

COLOUR OF TIME - STRING QUARTET NO. 2

For 2 violins, viola, and cello. Chamber orchestra version also available.
Approximate duration: 16 minutes (3 movements, 5'20" each)
Colour of Time highlights aspects of life around Brisbane’s River, and the way it and its residents
change as time passes. Commissioned in 2024 for Amiti String Quartet by ABC Classic’s Composer Commissioning Fund, the quartet is inspired by Australian writer Thomas Shapcott’s poem Late Winter, Queensland. Each movement explores passing scenes by the water — the shimmering brown-blue of sunlight on river shallows as commuters pass, mild afternoons spent waiting for sunset, and the biting rush of westerly winds through the city as we near winter’s end.Studio recording to be released by ABC Classic in 2025.
Purchase the score.

WHERE LAND AND SKY MEET

For soprano saxophone, violin, viola, double bass, and piano.
Approximate duration: 6.5 minutesWhere Land and Sky Meet was composed for Brisbane-based quintet Topology's Queensland Stories Series, as part of their 2023 Launchpad Mentorship Program. The piece was inspired by a trip with friends through Western Queensland (Longreach and Winton area), and the way the road seemed to stretch out forever and ever under a vividly blue sky. I wrote this line in a journal as we travelled, and it came to form the basis for this piece of new music:"On it stretched, the line where the land and the sky met, so far away that it seemed as if it
found its beginning where the world ended."Full performance by Topology here.
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SUNRISE

For string quartet (string orchestra version also available)
Bowed parts available on request - get in touch here.Wind quartet version available soon!Approximate duration: 7 minutesSunrise, originally composed for string quartet, was inspired by a high school camping trip, where my friends and I would wake early each morning to watch the sun rise together. The three movements, which can also be performed as standalone works, draw on different aspects of the sights, sounds and feelings of those early mornings together in the Mary Valley. "Rustlings" describes the window of time just before dawn, which (surprisingly, to me) was not silent, but filled with life – with birdcalls and the noise of a waking world. "Dawn" imagines the hazy, misty growing of first light on the horizon. Finally, "Daybreak" captures the brilliance and joy of sunrise, with all the hope that comes with a new day.Full performance by Sketch Quartet here.Purchase the score.

PIANO TRIO NO. 1

Approximate duration: 15 minutes
Movements 1 and 2 performed below by myself, Emily Winter, and Alexandra Mison. Full performance available soon.
Purchase the score.

AERIAL DANCES

For chamber sinfonietta (single winds and brass, chamber strings)
Approximate duration: 8 minutes
Composed for Australian Youth Orchestras' 2024 National Music Camp Composition Program, premiered by NMC instrumental tutors on Jan 19th 2024 in Elder Hall, Adelaide.
Scorefollower video and score available soon.

MYORA

For symphony orchestra (double winds)
Approximate duration: 10 minutes
This symphonic poem was inspired by a school biology trip with friends to Myora Springs on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island) in Queensland, Australia. I was so amazed by the beauty of the place, with low-set mangroves emerging out of clear brackish water teeming with life, and I remember scribbling down the rippling figures heard in the violins and flutes on the bus back, in between revising my field notes of course! Those ideas were filed away until I began university, during which Queensland Youth Orchestras generously commissioned me to write several orchestral works for their ensembles. This is one of them.Full performance by Queensland Youth Orchestra 2 here.
Purchase the score.

TO THE NEW DAY

For symphony orchestra (double winds)
Approximate duration: 9.5 minutes
Commissioned for Queensland Youth Symphony as part of their 2023 Young Composer Program. Contact me about programming the piece here.

THREE PARK PIECES

For string orchestra
Bowed parts available on request - get in touch here.Approximate duration: 9.5 minutesThree Park Pieces explores the discovery and fun of playing in the nearby park with my brother when we were very small.  Each of the suite's short pieces are based around a game or memory:  "Potions" is based on jumping through puddles and mixing leaves together to make messy 'potions,' "Tadpoles" recalls tadpole watching under the bridge with my family in the drizzling rain, and "Hilltop" imagines racing down the park's steep hill on scooters with my friends.The work was first commissioned and premiered in full by Junior String Ensemble 1 of Queensland Youth Orchestras. However, each of the pieces can certainly be performed individually, or the order reshuffled at the conductor's discretion!Premiere performance by Junior String Ensemble 1 here.
Purchase the score.

THE MOON

For SATB choir
Approximate duration: 3 minutesThe Moon explores ideas of place, longing, and beauty. I wrote the text after a late night at university, unwinding with a close friend after a performance. It was quite enchanting standing together, watching the full moon's light paint the normally busy streets in a quiet glow, and I sought to express that sense of wonderment in this piece.Live performance by Lumens Chamber Choir.
Score coming soon!

SANDCASTLES

For SA choir and piano
Approximate duration: 4 minutes
Sandcastles was inspired by trips to the Gold Coast as a family, where my brother and I would make sandcastles and tell stories to each other. The piece grew out of that love for imagination, and for stories that grow to be larger than life.Purchase through Singscore here.
Live performance by Birralee Singers here.

LIFT UP YOUR VOICE AND SING

For SSA choir, piano, and djembe
Approximate duration: 2.5 minutes
An energetic and rousing song about speaking out and letting your voice be heard. This piece was written for the Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s International Women’s Day Concert in 2020. The live recording is generously provided by their Chamber Singers group. A great piece to perform as a finale!Purchase through Singscore here.
Live performance by Brisbane Girls Grammar School's Chamber Singers.

AFTER NIGHT FALLS

For SSA choir, piano, and djembe
Approximate duration: 2.5 minutes
A beautiful poem and a beautiful setting for treble voices, this song describes the hope which can come with the dawning of the new day, despite the darkest night. Hear the live performance below, courtesy of Brisbane Girls Grammar School Chamber Singers.Purchase through Singscore here.
Live performance by Brisbane Girls Grammar School's Chamber Singers.

EXCERPTS FROM NOSFERATU

For chamber sinfonietta
Approximate duration: 12.5 minutes
info about the piece - commission history, premiere, inspiration.
Full performance video coming soon.