Virtuosic & Curious Instrumentalists
About Us
Ensemble Offspring
Sydney’s musical maverick Ensemble Offspring, unite the most innovative instrumentalists in Australia with a broad collective of collaborators to explore new ideas through living new music. Led by acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes, the ensemble comprises a core line-up of some of Australia’s most well-regarded and virtuosic musicians: Lamorna Nightingale (flute), Jason Noble (clarinet), Véronique Serret (violin), Blair Harris & Freya Schack-Arnott (cello), Bree van Reyk (percussion) and Zubin Kanga & Ben Kopp (piano). Together we champion living composers and create musical experiences that stimulate the senses and pique curiosity. We support emerging and as-yet-unheard composers, in particular championing Australian female identifying and First Nations artists.
Our Community
Our varied collaborations stretch artistic horizons and advance the ever-expanding landscape of new music. Since 2014 our Hatched Academy program has nurtured the next generation of Australian musicians and composers, while our First Nations Composer Program has fostered the careers of Indigenous musicians since 2017. For a decade our Sizzle series has been experienced annually at local and regional bowling clubs, garnering a cult following along the way. Recent partnerships include Ensemble Adapter (Berlin), International Contemporary Ensemble (New York), Sydney Chamber Opera (Sydney) and The Living Room Theatre (Sydney).
Our Highlights
In 2020 we celebrated 25 years of innovative new music making and the astounding journey we have taken from a student group – originally named the Spring Ensemble – to the internationally esteemed ensemble we are today. In 2019 we received the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Group Award; the same year we were selected to showcase at the international music market, Classical:NEXT (Rotterdam), and were also nominated for our first ARIA Award in the Best Children’s Album category. In 2016, we won the APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Organisation. Our recent tours have taken us as far afield as Amsterdam, Berlin, Glasgow, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and we feature regularly at Tasmania’s Mona Foma Festival and Sydney Festival. Committed to subverting the classical music tradition with experiential concerts of living new music across genre, place and art form, Ensemble Offspring are navigating the future with open mindedness, flexibility and joy – we invite you to join us on our adventures ahead.
Musicians
Musicians
Board
Regulatory Executive, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
Liz offers diverse experience in leadership, organisational strategy, policy development and governance. She has strength in cultivating networks and engaging effectively with stakeholders in dynamic, multifaceted environments to effect change. Deeply committed to inclusion and diversity, Liz actively promotes differences in thought and perspective to inform decision making. She is passionate about the arts and serving her community, also holding directorships with Diversity Council Australia and KU Children’s Services. She is a former Chair of the Board of Shopfront Arts Co-op. Liz holds tertiary qualifications in transformational leadership, management, commerce and law, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Associate Professor, Universal Business School Sydney
Wayne is an Associate Professor at the Universal Business School Sydney and brings his wealth of experience in accounting, teaching and business in a number of national and international companies over a commercial career extending in excess of forty years. His senior finance positions include National Finance Director for Ernst & Young and Finance Director for the Bank of New Zealand in Australia. While his primary industry focus was in the financial services and insurance industry, Wayne has experience across many industries including manufacturing, services, logistics and teaching. Wayne is a qualified CPA, a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders and was a graduate member of the Australian Institutes of Company Directors. He also recently achieved Chartered Manager status at the Institute. In addition, Wayne is currently a member of the Academic senate for UBSS, a member of the Course Advisory committee and Chair of the Academic Integrity Committee.
Executive Manager, Musica Viva Australia
Trish has spent over 30 years in arts management in Australia, first as CountryWide and Export Manager at Musica Viva, then as Relationship Manager in the Major Performing Arts division at the Australia Council for the Arts. She is now enjoying her second placement at Musica Viva. She was closely involved in managing the Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music which ran for 12 years in the 1990s/early 2000s. She sat on the Board of the Australian Youth Orchestra, served as Chair at Arts on Tour and on the Board of Governors of the Federation of Asian Cultural Promotion.
At Musica Viva from 1983-2002 she was also responsible for curating and implementing the Cultural Relations Program for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) internationally. Prior to her involvement in the arts, Trish spent ten years serving abroad in DFAT’s diplomatic service. She graduated from Deakin University with majors in Public Relations and Journalism.
Chief Executive Officer, TAD
Anthony is Chief Executive Officer at TAD, Vice President of TAD Australia, and Convenor of Actuaries Institute’s Public Policy Council Committee. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer at Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, co-lead of the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Prostate Cancer Survivorship, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Griffith University. Prior to joining Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Anthony was Chief Operating Officer at the National Breast Cancer Foundation. He has held senior executive positions in the financial services industry in Australia, the US and UK, ultimately becoming Executive Director and Asia-Pacific business group leader at Mercer Wealth Solutions.
Artistic Director
Internationally acclaimed Australian percussionist and artistic director of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes is the only Australian to win the ‘APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual’ three times and is a committed advocate of gender equity in classical music and new music more broadly. She has built a career out of innovative project and program development and has a great deal of experience at many levels of the music presentation and production scene in Australia and overseas. She is one of the biggest direct commissioners of percussion solo and instrumental ensemble repertoire in Australia evidenced in the number of listings on the AMC website with her name associated. Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy has grown to become one of the most competitive summer school opportunities in Australia. She has broad ranging skills in performance, ensemble leading, programming, curation, teaching, marketing, commissioning, audience development, funding applications, budgets, tour management, philanthropic development, lobbying, public speaking – all the while bringing up two girls and holding down a casual teaching position at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Sydney Grammar School.
Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art
Rachel Kent is the Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia. She has presented exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States and Canada, working with artists such as Grayson Perry, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Tatsuo Miyajima, David Goldblatt, Cornelia Parker and, forthcoming, Doug Aitken. Rachel’s exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Rachel has extensive public speaking experience, interviewing Yoko Ono and Grayson Perry at the Sydney Opera House; delivering talks for Frieze London. She speaks on creativity and the visual arts, environmental themes, and human rights. Most recently she delivered a TEDx talk on Art & Interconnection in difficult times. She is passionate about creativity in all its forms, including live art, performance and music. Rachel completed her postgraduate studies at The University of Melbourne; and is a graduate of the Women and Leadership Australia (WLA) advanced leadership program.
Elizabeth Hristoforidis
Chair
Wayne Smithson
Treasurer
Trish Ludgate
Deputy Chair
Dr. Anthony Lowe
Company Secretary
Claire Edwardes
Regular Member
Rachel Kent
Regular Member
Patron

Shane Simpson AM
Special Counsel, Simpson Solicitors
Shane is a chairman of Studio A (NSW’s only supported studio for artists with intellectual disability), a director of the UNSW Foundation and the Peggy Glanville Hicks Composers’ House Trust. He is also on the Council of the National Library of Australia and is the independent director on several private foundations. Shane Simpson was the founder of the Arts Law Centre of Australia and the Prelude Project (a national network of composer houses). He is Special Counsel at Simpsons Solicitors, a firm specialising in the arts, entertainment, cultural property and copyright. He was formerly chair of the Bundanon Trust; Advisory Council of the Faculty of Art + Design, UNSW; The Aboriginal Benefits Foundation; the NSW Film and Television Office and Museums and Galleries NSW and a non-executive director on numerous boards in the cultural industries including the Australian Maritime Museum the New Zealand Film Commission, the Australian National Academy of Music, the National Association for the Visual Arts, the Crafts Council of Australia, the Music Council of Australia and the Copyright Agency. He is the author of many books including ‘Visual Artists and the Law’, ‘Music Business’, and ‘Collections Law: Legal Issues for Australian Archives, Galleries, Libraries and Museums’. In 2015 he was commissioned by the Australian Government to conduct an independent review of the protection of movable cultural heritage: “Borders of Culture”. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “service to the law and to the arts through leading roles in intellectual property and entertainment law, and as a contributor to a range of cultural organisations.”
Staff
