St Stephen's X|Celerate Program: Konzertprojekt presents: Light Qualities

Sophie Van Dijk is an emerging composer and violinist passionate about creating music that is engaging and unique. She writes music to explore elements of faith, society and humanity and share these things with others with the ultimate goal of bringing joy and fostering dialogue and community.

Sophie is currently studying a Bachelor of Music (Composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has had chamber, choral and solo works performed throughout the ACT and NSW. Sophie is currently working on new chamber and choral works and an exciting collaboration with Sydney-based poet Clare Pryor.

Liam Mulligan (21) is a vocalist, composer, film maker and visual artist based in the Sutherland Shire.

His music is heavily inspired by experimental electronic noise with strong aleatoric elements. His pieces focus on creating a strong bond between the performers and audience through multi-sensory composition and performance.

His practices in music define who he is as a film maker and visual artist. These works focus on the abstraction of everyday life, and are created and edited through particular software which allows him to improvise freely.

Liam also enjoys combining his musical and artistic practices into installations and performances which revolve around input from the audience.

Rhys Little (b.1998) is a Sydney Based composer, performer and conductor with a young but packed-full career in many sides of the music industry. An alumni of the Conservatorium High School, he is currently studying composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (University of Sydney).

Rhys has worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Chamber Opera, and Sydney Conservatorium Ensembles as a composer, conductor, euphonium-ist, and more. He is a founding member and conductor of the Konzertprojekt Collective and A La La choir.

Rhys is a vanguard of the new generation of ‘classical’ musicians.

Gabrielle Cadenhead (b. 1998) is an emerging writer and composer who blurs the line between music and poetry. She is currently studying English and Composition at the University of Sydney and Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Gabrielle's music is inspired by literature, social justice, faith and the natural world, and has been performed by youth orchestras and professional musicians alike. She is most interested in the intersection between her artforms - the rhythms of poetry, and the ability of music to tell compelling stories. She is a founding member of Konzertprojekt, a collective of composers and performers passionate about presenting new and old music in fresh contexts, and her writing often bleeds into her musical practices.

David Tocknell is a composer, educator and viola player passionate about the create collective musical experiences. David believes that through creating and listing to music, people can share experiences and be brought closer together. Through listening to music other than our own, we can understand other people better, and it is this philosophy that drives David’s work. This love of music and culture has been nurtured at the Sydney Conservatorium of music, where he is currently studying Music Education.

My full name is Shaun Premnath. I’m a composer-performer who loves exploring both Indian and Western music and my ultimate goal is to become a ‘Master’ of both worlds. I fuse the two traditions to create something new and beautiful - music that isn't of any one type or genre, but rather a harmony with the potential to unify people of all cultures. For me, music is like oxygen to life. Put simply, it’s my compass. It’s been an innate part of who I am for as long as I can remember. Composing, Teaching and Performing are my life passions.

Lachlan Foster is an up-and-coming composer and conductor in the Australian contemporary music scene. Currently completing his Bachelor in Music (Composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Lachlan has written numerous works in a range of styles from electroacoustic music, to music for chamber ensembles and jazz trios. He is currently a member of the composer-performer collective, Konzertprojekt. Lachlan also works as a conductor and arranger for the Blue Mountains Concert Band and Mountains Youth Band.

Maddy Briggs is a forthcoming composer currently studying composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Drawing upon an interest in social politics and visual art, her compositions aim to communicate a concept or mood through the progression of the compositions,with favouritism for experimenting with the unique sonic possibilities with the prepared piano.

Exe.cute, a piece weaving together both the digital and physical sounds produced from early computer viruses, was her first venture into digital composition and was subsequently selected for the 2018 Extended Play Festival at the City Recital Hall.

Ben Robinson is a young composer living in Sydney and is currently studying a Bachelor of Music (Composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has a particular interest in writing for small ensembles and wind instruments, but also enjoys different avenues including electroacoustic music. In the last year, Ben was one of Trinity Grammar School’s two Composer Fellows, was the winner of the AMEB Centenary Fanfare Competition receiving the prize of $5000, had an experimental piece performed at Extended Play, a 12-hour new-music festival at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, and was awarded second prize in the Arcadia Winds Composition Competition.

Christine Pan has been studying the piano since the age of three. She was awarded a full music scholarship at Wenona School and subsequently completed her Associate of Music in 2011. In 2016, she was offered a place at Sydney Conservatorium after being granted the Elizabethan Ladies Trust Scholarship.

She works as the in-house composer of games for NO-MOSS studios. She recently premiered her second orchestral work, ‘Kamikaze – Wind of the Divine’, by the KYO and SCM Orchestra. She is well experienced in commercial music and just finished a marketing project for the Independent Theatre, North Sydney.

Besides composing, Christine is part of Somnus Quintet performing for wedding functions, and the band Saving Nathan as a keyboardist/pianist.

Quart-Ed is an emerging string quartet formed in 2018. The members, Sarah, Caitlin, Connor and Karen, are all currently studying a Bachelor of Music (Education) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, which is where they met. Their goal is to create programs that inform, educate and entertain children and music students. In the last six months alone, Quart-Ed has played in multiple concerts in Sydney and Melbourne, premiering more than five new works, performing in art galleries and entertaining children with intellectual disabilities with interactive and engaging repertoire.