Sonic Spaces

Nardi Simpson, a Yuwaalaraay storyteller and musician based in Sydney, has embarked on a remarkable artistic journey. With over twenty-three years of experience, she began her career as a songwriter and performer with the vocal duo Stiff Gins, releasing multiple albums, singles, and EPs. Her writing journey commenced with the Indigenous Writers’ Mentorship Program in 2014, leading to the creation of her debut novel, 'Song of the Crocodile,' released in 2020. Nardi also ventured into playwriting with 'Black Drop Effect' at the 2020 Sydney Festival. A versatile artist, she recently composed, conducted, and performed in the 2022 Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House presentations of '-barra.' Currently pursuing a PhD, Nardi remains dedicated to cultural sharing, music, and storytelling within her communities.

Saxophonist-composer Jeremy Rose leads a multidimensional career that includes a dozen releases of original music through collaborative and solo projects across the world, including The Earshift Orchestra, Jeremy Rose Quartet, and The Vampires. He has been recognized with nominations for the ARIA Awards, a shortlisting for the Australian Music Prize, two Jazz Bell Awards, the APRA Professional Development Award for Jazz, and as a four-time finalist in the AMC Art Music Award for Excellence in Jazz and runner-up at the National Jazz Awards saxophone competition.

Bassist Lloyd Swanton is co-founder of one of the great cult bands of Australia, the piano trio The Necks. They have released 20 albums since 1986 and regularly perform throughout the world. The Necks were the first band to receive the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music, at the 2019 Art Music Awards. Swanton appears on over 90 albums, including several ARIA Award winners, and has produced four ARIA Award winners by Bernie McGann.

Hamed Sadeghi is a renowned Persian tar player and composer. He has performed at festivals, concert halls and other venues around the world in solo and collaborative musical and theatrical projects. He has been nominated in the Sydney Theatre Awards for best mainstage score and AMC Art Music Award for best chamber music. His band Eishan Ensemble tours regularly nationally and internationally.

Joseph Tawadros is a leading Oud virtuoso, composer and 8 time ARIA-award winner. Born in Cairo, his chosen instrument, the Oud is an Arabic lute, the ancestor of the lute and modern guitar. He has performed his own works with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Western Australian Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Ukraine National Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, the Morphing Chamber Orchestra. His ground-breaking Concerto for Oud & Orchestra was performed with the Sydney Symphony and recorded and released by ABC Classics in 2019. Joseph is also one of the 50 Australian composers chosen to write a fanfare celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th birthday. He was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for services to music in 2016.

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.