About Jane Sheldon
Jane Sheldon is an Australian-American vocal performer. Praised by the New York Times for singing “sublimely”, the Sydney Morning Herald for “a brilliant tour de force”, and The Australian for “mesmerising emotional truth”, Jane has established an international reputation for highly specialized contemporary opera and art music for voice. She is an Artistic Associate at Sydney Chamber Opera.

Jane’s compositional work includes electronic music, chamber music, opera installations, works for dance companies, and large-scale sound installations for museums. Described as “riveting” (New York Times) and “gripping” (Financial Times), Jane’s compositions focus on the experience of altered or transformative states of being.

About Jack Symonds
Jack Symonds is a composer, conductor and pianist, and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London under Kenneth Hesketh and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal. His stage works represent “a striking and impressive new operatic voice” (Sydney Morning Herald) and he is “one of those performers who seemingly can play anything” (Australian Book Review).

He specialises in the performance of new music, including conducting and playing major stage works by Britten, Benjamin, Janáček, Dusapin, Kurtág, Saariaho, Maxwell Davies, Kancheli, Rihm & Styles, often in their Australian premieres. He has also given the world premieres of Gyger’s Fly Away Peter & Oscar and Lucinda, Finsterer’s Antarctica (with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) & Biographica, Ricketson’s The Howling Girls and Smetanin’s Mayakovsky.

About Blair Harris
Blair Harris is a highly regarded Melbourne-based solo cellist and chamber musician, known particularly for his strikingly individual interpretations and innovative collaborative projects. He has commissioned many solos by Australian composers including by Jack Symonds, Alice Humphries and Paul Dean. Blair has been a member of Ensemble Offspring since 2016. He performs regularly as a duo with pianist Caroline Almonte and enjoyed many years performing with Syzygy Ensemble (Melbourne) and Southern Cross Soloists (Brisbane). Blair is currently on staff as a cello teacher at Monash University. Blair joined Ensemble Offspring in 2015.

About Lucy Norton
Lucy Norton is a storyteller of Koori and Quechua heritage living and creating on Gadigal land. Her work explores themes of heritage, memory, ancestral trauma and moving towards healing. They're a recipient of the Varuna First Nations Fellowships 2023, Red Room Emerging Poet's Residency 2024 and their work has been published by Red Room Poetry, kindling & sage, and Right Now Magazine. Lucy is passionate about sharing her lived experience and encouraging others to do the same, advocating for the amplification of voices left out of the mainstream narrative. This often takes the form of teaching poetry workshops and other ways of creative expression.