Sonic Spaces

Jim Moginie is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter.

From the set of Play School to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Claire Edwardes OAM is Australia's ‘sorceress of percussion’ (City News, Canberra). The only Australian to win the 'APRA Art Music Luminary Award’ four times, Claire leaps between her role as Ensemble Offspring Artistic Director (2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award winners) and concerto performances with all the Australian and New Zealand orchestras plus several European orchestras. Add her genre-spanning solo concerts, a broad spectrum of cross art form collaborations, commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works by Australian and international composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Louis Andriessen, Elena Kats-Chernin and Holly Harrison, teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music to passionately advocating for gender equity and diversity in classical music. As a true trailblazer, perhaps her most significant contribution, beyond her endless quest for excellence in performance, is in breaking down the barriers between art music and audiences. With an on stage and behind the scenes infectious enthusiasm for bringing new music to unexpected places, she wows audiences with her unique performances on marimba, vibraphone, drums, percussion and more unusual instruments such as the waterphone and cajon. As recently described by The Age Claire is a ‘prodigiously talented Australian…an invigorating musical life force.’

Bree van Reyk is a drummer, percussionist, composer, sound artist and occasional maker of unkempt musical instruments.

Her debut album, superclusters, was released in Autumn 2022 through Hobbledehoy Records. Superclusters is a large-scale quasi-improvised massed instrumental ensemble work in five parts which spans from experimental noise through to nostalgic dream-scapes. A wide array of musicians feature on the album, including Jim White and Mick Turner (Dirty Three), Véronique Serret (Gurrumul, Joanna Newsom), Nick Wales (CODA), Jess Green (Pheno), Zoe + Ben Hauptmann, Evan Mannell, Timothy Constable and many more.

Over the past 20 or so years Bree has forged a unique career playing and recording with a diverse range of artists including Gurrumul, Emma Donovan, Paul Kelly, Holly Throsby, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Mike Patton, Ensemble Offspring, Synergy Percussion and many more.

As a composer and sound artist Bree has been commissioned by the SSO, Dark MOFO, Sydney Chamber Opera, Marrageku Dance Theatre, AGNSW, GOMA, NGV and the MCA, who acquired her performance work, Molto Echo, made in collaboration with Lauren Brincat, for their permanent collection. Bree holds an Associate Lecturer role at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she is completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts under supervision of Liza Lim.

Recent commissions include Threaded in Amongst the Infinite Threading for Genevieve Lacey and Marshall McGuire - part of their ARIA Award-winning ‘Bower’ release, which earned Bree a finalist position in the APRA/AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards 2022; The Invisible Bird for Sydney Chamber Opera, and Fanfare for Solidarity for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming commissions include a large scale dramatic work for the Sydney Chamber Opera, new work for Ensemble Offspring featuring Jane Sheldon and a collaboration with Darren Hanlon and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for MONAFOMA 2023.

Bree lives and works on the un-ceded lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people.

Véronique Serret is a violinist, vocalist and composer who effortlessly bridges the divide between classical and contemporary art forms. Folk, rock, experimental jazz, dance and improvisation all contribute to her musical palette.

Blending loops, delays, reverbs and vocals, Véronique redefines the expression of the violin. An evershifting landscape. A musical language activated by the raw acoustic sounds of the Australian bush, her love of birds, peppered with her colourful Mauritian heritage, a life on the road, rigorous classical training and a love of deep listening combine to generate a contemporary sonic field.