Composing

I’m interested in how different ways of making can speak to each other, both by working with diverse people and by experimenting across methods in my own practice. I enjoy deeply process- and materials-led approaches, and I’m passionate about pursuing sincere, humanised performance and listening cultures across my work. A lot of my projects indulge affections for Australian wildlife, and I’m attracted to the idea of the ordinary – in finding beauty within everyday things.

A focus of my compositional style is notation. I explore the score as both a guide for musical activity and as a visual artform in its own right, folding together ideas and techniques from across collaborations with visual artists, architects, dancers, cultural practitioners, and makers of moving image. I look in this world of exploratory scores for richer and clearer forms of expression, more ethical and decolonising methods, new visual, sonic, and interactive dimensions to play with, and to enhance the performer’s experience.

Performing and Sound-Art

Improvisation is important for me, both in my compositions and as an independent creative activity. I’m also deeply into field recording and integrating found objects, developing a multi-instrumental practice, building new instruments, and collaborating with the environment or place of performance. I explore these through free-improvisations, sound collages, collaborative interdisciplinary works, and installations.

Indigenous Australian art has a deep influence on my philosophy and approach towards music-making. My education has been shaped by Ballardong Noongar, Whadjuk Noongar, Djab Wurrung, Gunditj Mara, Ngarrindjeri, and Wägilak Yolŋu knowlages, among others. A key part of my participation in culture is through mentored sessions and performances with traditional Yidaki/Didgeridoo players, centred on learning this instrumental language and deeper practice, and finding a way to speak to it as a trombonist. Most recently, this work has been in collaboration with Amos Roach, performing with his Six Seasons Orchestra and the Murrundaya Yepengna Dance Troupe. You can find videos here.

This practice was also developed through my honours research thesis on intercultural ethics at the University of Melbourne.

Background and Past Work

I studied composition at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of James Ledger, and at the University of Melbourne under Elliott Gyger. I’ve also completed artist development programs with the Australian Youth Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Speak Percussion and Chamber Made, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and the Australian Art Orchestra.

Some of my past work includes artist residencies with Saruya, Bundanon, and PICA; installations with FORM Gallery, Curtin Gallery, and Sarah Scouts Presents; composing in the Alaskan wilderness; a film project in Amsterdam; and I’ve directed my own productions with the Blue Room Theatre, KickstArt Festival, and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

Some awards I’ve received include the Schenberg Music Fellowship, Marshall McGuire Emerging Composer Fellowship, the WA Symphony Orchestra’s Bendat Scholarship, and the Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize for Composition.

2026 Activities

○ Artist in residence with Taidetila Muijala (Finland, May-June).

○ Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Composer Academy (Sydney, November 21).

○ Speak Percussion’s Bespoke Artist Program (Melbourne, 2026-2027).

○ Chamber Made & Speak Percussion’s Test Flight (Melbourne, April 18).