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Written for the 2024 Luminous festival, "(How) Are You Loving Home?" is an intimate piece of music for violin, cello, and piano which seeks to provoke listeners to reflect on the land they inhabit and the community they share it with. Its primary metaphor explores the distinction of house and home, extending beyond the walls of one’s postal address to encompass a broader sense of belonging in their area. It asks if we have embraced our place and people to contribute to others’ sense of home, and allowed ourselves the vulnerability to be embraced in return. Listeners are encouraged to pause and think about if and how they embody these values.
Other works in the exhibition were graffitied photographs by Michael Henderson and a ceramic and clay installation by Karin McCormack. I am humbled to have worked alongside such tremendous artists. Experience my piece with its visual component (intentionally basic and looped to simply facilitate the aforementioned reflection) below:


Originally shown in parts over several dates leading up to and on Easter, 2024, at C3 Hobart South Church. This animation was created by Michael Henderson, all sound and music by me.
From Michael:
"The animation centres on two characters; Peter (old man) and Jesus (young man). They are set in 2024. They are both wearing jeans. Hobart is behind Peter, with Kunanyi in the distance. They are both on the Derwent.
The animation is not aiming to illustrate a biblical text or event. In fact, the imagery and the story are inspired by many different biblical stories that focus on Jesus and Peter. Like, Jesus asking Peter to walk on the water and Peter doubting if he can - like, Peter turning away from Jesus- like, Peter hugging Jesus after the resurrection. It connects these events with the symbolism of baptism, and its connection with Jesus’ death and resurrection."
This project was a fun challenge with very limited time-frame to get it done. Sometimes, these external pressures are necessary to create at all. See the full thing on YouTube.
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Electro Lieder was showcased as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival 2023 on September 8, @ Annandale Creative Arts Centre.
I had the privilege of joining with Fragments Ensemble and other experimental composers to produce 'a wildly expressive multimedia blend of classical and the avant-garde.' Voice, piano, and poetry were featured as per the tradition of art song ('Lieder' = 'song'), but this was expanded upon with violin, cello, explorative live electronics and interactive digital visuals, producing a continuous 55min experience.
Electro Lieder is an experimental multimedia fusion, born of these musicians’ collective, artistic response to recent world experiences. Their craft allows them to draw on historical and culturally diverse experience as they connect the past to the present and allow for imagination of the future. It is our collective hope to present more showings of Electro Lieder.
A recording of my piece for this show will be uploaded once obtained.


An orchestral piece of mine was featured at the Australian Institute of Music’s Blend Composers Festival on August 3rd, 2023. Songwriters, media composers, and electronic producers’ works were showcased each in turn at the event.
My piece was 12 minutes in length, spanning 3 movements, with a few words describing each movement’s meaning projected onto a screen. The overall narrative depicts the birth, beauty, and death of a flower, alternating to a wider scope of a field of flowers. The core concept was the transience of these flowers’ beauty, but on a deeper level alluding to this same transience or ephermerality in all good and beautiful things, moments, and memories in this world.
As an exercise in orchestration, I only used sounds that can physically occur on the respective instruments, rather than using anything like modulated ‘pads’, which I am often inclined towards. I reject the notion that sounds created this way are not music, but it was in fact my typical reliance on them that inspired this decision.
Below are the slides that were projected and the audio tracks themselves.


Sooth Your Storm
Music written for an advertisement for the Soothe Your Storm journal - providing tools to help understand and articulate thoughts and feelings for those who are struggling with mental health.


how lonely lies this island, once so full of people
— Scultpure Series by Michael Henderson
I wrote 3 pieces of music, each played on loop housed with a 6-metre tall sculpture for this a public exhibition. The series ran during June 2022, in Hobart, Tasmania.
“Fundamentally, this art work is a heart felt response to our Tasmanian Aboriginal people and communities… It declares a desire to heal that relationship, to tell the truth of the past and remember it, to welcome them and continue to welcome them until they are ready to respond, and to carry courage with us, the Non-indigenous community, until we have developed a healthy, loving, trusting relationship with everyone. That is the wholehearted dream.”
— Michael Henderson, artist.
This was a significant milestone for my career and my personal formation as an composer. It helped me discover how to engage my faith values with my artistic practice.
Links:
More info on the artist’s site
My personal reflections on the project
The images below are small models representative of the actual 5m tall scultpures, and beneath them are the music tracks.

Three Little Bunnies
I composed some 20th-Century ‘old-fashioned kids TV’ styled orchestral music for this animation. The project started out as a present from three sisters to their mum. However, an official public release is anticipated for this and the 2 subsequent episodes.
