Damian Barbeler
Biography
November 2023
Damian Barbeler is an award-winning composer and multimedia artist. His works have been performed and broadcast around the world. He is recognised for his unique visually inspired style, especially his lush, emotional creations inspired by textures and patterns in nature. He regularly collaborates with colleagues from diverse fields including film, architecture, software design, media arts, dance and more. He frequently makes multi-art works incorporating film, theatrical and sculptural elements with music.
His uncategorisable work often emphasises tactile experiences of physical places and relationships especially the natural landscape, for example his current project :"duet for One" with pianist Sonya Lifschitz exploring our desire for connection to nature.
In 2020 Barbeler co-curated the independent, experimental, online HiberNATION Festival of the Lo-fi which was nominated for the global 2021 Classical:NEXT awards. He has twice received the ‘Recommended Work’ award at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. He was a finalist in the international Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize 2008, and was awarded the prestigious Ian Potter Emerging Composer Fellowship 2006/07.
Damian’s creations have featured in concert halls and festivals around Australia. In 2024 Barbeler's choral work Charlotte, on a text by Judith Crispin, will be premiered by Kings College Cambridge Choir on an Australian national Musica Viva tour. For nearly a decade he Directed projects with local communities in Far North Qld and the Torres Strait Islands for Qld Music Festival.
Other major works include, Scenes from the Bundian Way (2022) for Canberra International Music Festival, Piece for Violin and Ball of Wool (2018), for violin and ritual theatre for Melbourne Recital Hall, Metropolis Festival; The Sound Bubble installation in Vivid 2016 (with John Taylor and Anna McMichael), and MOFO Festival Launceston (2018); The Music Orchard (with Tim Jetis, Ciaran Frame and John Taylor) Vivid 2017; Bruce’s Shed, for Big hArt for the 2015 Tasmanian International Arts Festival; Bright Birds (2012) and Visiting Eucalyptus (2018, with Tim Jetis) for Four Winds Festival.
Barbeler holds a PhD in Composition from the University of Sydney, and lectures in composition and digital music at University of Sydney, Sydney Conservatorium, and creative performance practice at University of NSW.
Damian is Creative Producer for Backstage Music a Sydney-based experimental music presenter supporting diverse, emerging and established artist to explore wonderful ideas with audience hungry for new ideas and experiences.