Anna McMichael is an Australian-born violinist who has returned to live in Australia in 2010 after 17 years in Europe performing in many of the major ensembles and orchestras. In Australia, she has been first prize winner of the String final of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, guest assistant leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, guest associate concertmaster of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and guest concertmaster of Orchestra Victoria. Anna is Co-ordinator of Strings at the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music, Monash University. Anna has performed at many European music festivals with a number of Dutch chamber ensembles and toured extensively with groups such as the London Sinfonietta, Amsterdam Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Ensemble, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has recorded for a number of European recording labels and been active teaching masterclasses and workshops in conservatoriums in both Europe and Australia. Anna performs throughout Australia and is Co-Director of the Tyalgum Music Festival , is a core member of the early music group, Ironwood.
Damian Barbeler is an award-winning composer and multimedia artist whose works have been performed and broadcast around the world. He is recognised for his playful artistic style and lush, emotional creations inspired by textures and patterns from nature. He regularly collaborates with colleagues from diverse fields including film, architecture, software design, media arts, dance and more, and incorporates visual, sculptural and light elements with all his music. His work often emphasises tactile experiences of physical places and relationships. His work (with artist Tim Jetis) Visiting Eucalyptus is a good example, where 6 months of travelling, photographing Eucalyptus trees resulted in a concert work, installation, book, film and website. Damian has twice received the ‘Recommended Work’ award at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and was a finalist in the Toru Takemitsu Prize 2008. He was awarded the Ian Potter Emerging Composer Fellowship to compose seven works during 2006-2007, including commissions for recorder player Genevieve Lacey, and Southern Cross Soloists. In 2010 he received a PhD from the Sydney Conservatorium. In 2015 he was a finalist for “Best Instrumental Work” for the APRA/AMC Art Music Awards.
Louise Devenish is a contemporary percussionist whose creative practice blends performance, collaboration and artistic research. A passionate advocate of new music and Australian music, Louise has commissioned over 50 works for percussion, and her performances are acknowledged for their ‘dazzling vitality’, ‘stunning virtuosity’, ‘interpretive flair and technical brilliance’. As a soloist and with ensembles including acclaimed electroacoustic sextet Decibel (WA), studio-lab The Sound Collectors Lab, and chamber ensemble Intercurrent she develops new works exploring graphic notation, post-instrumental practice and collaborative creativity, performing around Australasia, Europe, North America and the UK. Louise was Chair of Percussion at UWA Conservatorium of Music, where she founded and directed Piñata Percussion (2013-2019). She is currently Senior Research Fellow and ARC DECRA Fellow at Monash University, where she is also Percussion Coordinator. Louise is a Churchill Fellow, and recently published her first book Global Percussion Innovations: The Australian Perspective.
Emily Yali is a Sydney based contemporary dancer. Her movement explores both structured exaggerated shapes and the everyday pedestrian body. Emily is a recent graduate of Ev and Bow dance centre, completing her Cert IV in dance under the incredible Sarah Boulter. Emily has also been working under Emma Saunders and Form Dance projects through 'We Are Here Company' since 2020. She recently performed with the company in 'Radical Transparency' at Riverside theatre and is currently working towards 'Encounter' which will be performed at Sydney Opera House. Emily is diverse in her movement and is constantly evolving her personal practise. She has taken on many intimate projects and has been a freelance dancer since 2015. Emily makes a strong effort to continue her journey with dance and the many opportunities that come through this artform.
Tim Gruchy began playing with analogue synthesizers and video mixing shortly after leaving school in the seventies. He never stopped. His extensive career spans the exploration and composition of immersive and interactive multimedia through installation, music and performance, whilst redefining its’ role and challenging the delineations between cultural sectors. He has exhibited multimedia works, photography, video, music and performed across five continents in over forty years. He was a member of the Sydney RAT party team, the pioneering techno band Vision Four 5 and so much more. www.grup.tv
Liam Mulligan (b.1997) is a composer, film maker, visual artist, curator and academic based in Sydney, Australia. Currently a Masters student at the Sydney Conservatorium of music, Liam’s practice explores the potential of multi-sensory experience through the creation of installation-based work. Liam has been featured in concerts and events at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney’s City Recital Hall, Vivid Sydney 2018 and 2019, the hiberNATION Festival, and playlists curated by Making Waves. Liam has had a hand in multiple large-scale projects. In 2017, Liam co-founded new music collective Konzertprojekt and worked with them as a composer, performer, sound engineer, social media content creator and curator. Notably, Liam was project manager for the 2019 ‘Light Qualities’ mini-festival as part of Vivid Sydney, consisting of four concerts featuring eleven commissions performed by numerous emerging ensembles and soloists. From 2020-2022, Liam has co-curated the completely-online hiberNATION Festival of the Lo-fi, alongside artists such as Damian Barbeler, Elizabeth Jigalin, Dahyo Lloyd, Maddy Briggs and Siân Lindsay.
Panos Couros is a sound designer and composer with a history of creating and presenting public multi-channel/surround soundscapes and sound installations, and has produced these across the country. He also creates work for theatre, dance and multimedia, much of which has been performed and exhibited nationally and internationally. For more information: panx.com.au
Lewis Mosley is an emerging Australian composer working on Gadigal land, recently completing his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His works often stand at the intersection between composition and installation art, with a focus on the sculptural and performative aspects of the music. His works have been played at concerts involving members of Sydney’s new music group Ensemble Offspring such as the Backstage Concert series, as well as the student run orchestra Ensemble Apex - these works have also been praised in Australia’s arts music magazine Limelight. He is also a guitarist and improviser, drawing influence from many years playing in bands within Sydneys local music scene.
Hirofumi Uchino: Australian based Japanese artist who creates "noise" related performances, objects and exhibitions with wide range skills and methods. Founder of "Lastgasp Art Laboratories" and "Defektro". Defektro is a band characterized by harsh machine produced junk metal sounds, who have performed together for over 25 years. Formed in Tokyo, Japan, Defektro, from time to time, comprises a 3 human, many machine noise unit. One of the former members Hirofumi Uchino, a futuristic Dr Frankenstien, is the evil mastermind and father of the machines invented for Defektro. The sound is produced by the machines, noise instruments and sonic weapons then sampled, effectively chewed up and spat out for the pleasure of the audience. Over 30 titled recordings have been released from various record labels around the world. Internationally Defektro has toured the United States in 2000, Australia in 2003, Europe (Turkey, France, Germany, Finland, Norway) in 2007, Japan in 2009 and Europe (Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic) in 2017, and continues to perform domestically.
Dahyo Lloyd is a composer and installation artist working on Gadigal land. His work is concerned with human-machine interaction and synthesis, making use of homemade controllers designed to turn the human body into an instrument. Dahyo's works have been featured at Experimental vs Improvisation Live (EVIL), and the Rouse Hill Psychedelia festival. In 2021, Dahyo was a co-curator of HiberNATION festival, along with Damian Barbeler, Liam Mulligan and Siân Lindsay.
Elizabeth Jigalin is a composer and performer based in Eora/Sydney on Gadigal land. In her music, Elizabeth is drawn to miniature forms, the everyday, playfulness, collaging and creating ‘music outside the usual order of things’ (often in collaboration with APRA/AMC Art Music Award winning collective, ‘the music box project’ - a group she is the founder of). Elizabeth’s music has been performed on the National Carillon in Canberra, premiered at festivals around the world and explored in the bush, recital halls, parks, pubs and living rooms. Additionally, Elizabeth has composed music for a variety of films, animation shorts and composed/performed new soundtracks for over 20 silent films as part of Australia's Silent Film Festival. This year Elizabeth was an inaugural Housewarming artist in residence at Bondi Pavilion and presented her work Exquisite Chorus at Screen Dive / Gaudeamus Festival. Currently, she is Composer in Residence for the Voices of Women project and an Ars Musica Scholar.
From 2016-2020, Elizabeth co-curated Backstage Music and in 2020, she was part of the artistic team for Hibernation Festival of the Lo-fi where she presented a weekly breakfast sound show ‘Sound on Toast’. https://www.elizabethjigalin.net
Isabella Rahme is an emerging composer and harpist based in Sydney, currently undertaking her Bachelor of Music (Composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has written for choirs and ensembles of various sizes, her electroacoustic music has been featured in broadcasts such as Radiophrenia, and her music for animation made its way to the Annecy Film Festival. Her compositional style combines lyrical and avant-garde elements in a way that is contemplative and emotive. Her recent projects include a livestream improvisation on electroacoustic harp for HiberNATION festival of the lo-fi, and the debut concert of Ensemble Mnemosyne for which she composed & arranged a series of works for, as well as performed with. Some other recent works include her string quartet “Threnody” dedicated to the victims of the explosion of the Beirut port in August of 2020 - workshopped by the JACK quartet as part of JACK Studio - and a short audio-work composed for Juxta Jam as a part of the arts event NEXUS.