ART OF DISAPPEARING

Cameron Lam is a freelance composer, the Artistic Director of Sydney-based hybrid-art production company, Kammerklang, and the Art Music Specialist at the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA AMCOS). After completing his Bachelor of Music Composition (Honours) at the Sydney Conservatorium, Cameron’s career has focused on collaboration, interdisciplinary practice, and entrepreneurship. 

He is proud to be an Australian Music Centre represented composer, Fine Music 102.5FM’s 2018 Stephen Kruger Scholar, and featured in US publisher NewMusicShelf’s recent ‘Anthology of New Music for Mezzo Soprano’.  

Sarah Holland-Batt is an award-winning poet, editor, critic and academic. Born in Southport, Australia in 1982, she grew up in Australia and the United States, and has lived in in Italy and Japan. Her first book, Aria, was the recipient of several literary prizes, including the Anne Elder Award, the Arts ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Thomas Shapcott Prize, was shortlisted in both the New South Wales and Queensland Premiers’ Literary Awards, and was commended for The Age’s Poetry Book of the Year. 

She has worked as an editorial consultant for publishing houses New Directions and Atria Books in New York City, and presently lives in Brisbane, where she is an Associate Professor at QUT, and the poetry editor of Island magazine. She is the editor of Black Inc.’s The Best Australian Poems 2016 and The Best Australian Poems 2017. 

With a career spanning more than 25 years, Mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong has established herself as a versatile and intelligent musician with extensive experience in a broad range of classical repertoire. As a soloist, she has been acclaimed for her intense and dramatic portrayals of tragic heroines, such as Purcell’s Dido, Monteverdi’s Arianna and Britten’s Phaedra, her stylistic renderings of Baroque masterworks as well as her formidable and engaging performances of contemporary works such as Ligeti’s Sippàl, Dobbàl, Nahigeduvel, Macmillan’s Raising Sparks, Benjamin’s Upon Silence and Berio’s Folksongs. 

In recent years, Jenny has focused her attention on more intimate chamber repertoire, in particular in the field of new music. With soprano Alison Morgan, she established Halcyon in 1998, an ensemble renowned for innovative programming and exemplary contemporary vocal chamber music performance.  With Halcyon, she has premiered numerous Australian and international works by both acclaimed and emerging composers and commissioned many new works, including 21 new Australian commissions under the title Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon to celebrate their 15th birthday.  

Formed in 2015, the Geist String Quartet has quickly established itself as one of Sydney’s preeminent young ensembles. Following festival performances at Frenswegen (Germany), Orford (Canada), Turin and Verona (Italy), and Bangalow (Australia), the Geist Quartet has received praise for their interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, and 20th century works. 

As recipients of the Westheimer String Quartet Fellowship, Ernest V. Llewellyn Memorial Fund Award, and Mary Vallentine Prize, the quartet has been able to travel to ensemble development programmes across Germany, the U.S.A, Canada, and Australia. Through these programmes, the Geist Quartet has worked with artists and mentors including Eberhard Feltz, Sara Bitlloch, Monica Curro, Oliver Wille, William Coleman, and the Kuss, St Lawrence, London Haydn, and Elias quartets. 

The quartet has presented concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, and across regional New South Wales. A tour throughout central western NSW with David Miller OAM allowed the quartet to perform in a number of towns and cities as well as work with children in regional schools. 

Jayson is a Sydney based freelance audio engineer/producer and musician who specialises in classical, jazz and other acoustic music, and is passionately committed to the creation of recordings that are sonically beautiful, technically excellent and aesthetically appropriate. His output encompasses live concerts recordings, studio recordings, CD releases, live radio broadcasts and the creation of online content. He has engineered and produced numerous recordings of Australian and international artists and recorded in all the major acoustic music venues in Sydney.

His professional experience is reinforced by his qualifications in sound recording and music performance, as well as 25 years experience as a classical musician and music educator. He holds a Master of Music Studies (Creative Sound Production) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance from the Royal College of Music London, a Bachelor of Music (Performance) from the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, and a Graduate Diploma of Education from Edith Cowan University.