230 WORD BIOGRAPHY

(2024)

Claire Edwardes OAM is Australia's ‘sorceress of percussion’ (City News, Canberra) and the only Australian to win the 'APRA Art Music Luminary Award’ four times. Claire leaps between her role as Ensemble Offspring’s Artistic Director (Australia’s leading new music ensemble and winners of the 2022 Classical Next Innovation Award for Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers) and concerto performances with all of the Australian Symphony Orchestras including recent Australian and world premieres with Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart of works by Anne Cawrse, Natalie Williams, Iain Grandage, Elena Kats-Chernin and James MacMillan. In 2022 Claire was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her indelible contribution to Australian music and in 2023 was the recipient of the Australian Women in Music Award for Creative Leadership. 

Claire has hosted Play School, been an ARIA Award finalist twice and has performed as a soloist all over the world – from Vancouver to Amsterdam, Gold Coast to Malta and Huddersfield to Alice Springs. Widely known for her genre-spanning solo concerts, plus commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works for marimba, vibraphone, drums and more unusual instruments such as the waterphone, she passionately advocates for gender equity and diversity in all that she undertakes. As a true trailblazer Claire breaks down barriers between art music and audiences with her famous on-stage infectious enthusiasm for bringing new music to new audiences. Claire is a ‘an invigorating musical life force.’ The Age.