First Nations Composer Program

Eric Avery is a Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang, and Gumbangirri musician, violinist and dancer. He has studied at NAISDA and the Australian Institute of Music, has completed a mentorship at the Australian Ballet, and has engaged with Marrugeku for 5 years, attending their Intercultural Indigenous Choreographic Laboratories and dancing in Cut the Sky nationally and internationally. Eric has recently developed a solo work, Dancing with Strangers, with Belgian Choreographer Koen Augustijnen for Marrugeku’s triple bill Burrbgaja Yalirra. Eric has performed with the Black Arm Band internationally and locally and opened for Rhiannon Giddens for her Australian Performances at the Factory Theatre, Newtown. Eric regularly plays violin with his father, Graham King (Yidaki/Didgeridoo), recently performing at Boomerang-Byron Bay Bluesfest 2018.

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay composer, songwriter, storyteller and performer. Nardi was part of the 2019-2020 Ngara-Burria: First Peoples Composers cohort. One half of Stiff Gins, Nardi has performed at TEDxSydney and was the 2018 winner of Queensland’s Black&Write! Indigenous Writer’s Fellowship. The Stiff Gins was formed by Emma Donovan, Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs in 1999, after meeting at the Eora Centre while studying music. The band’s name uses the word gin (a derogatory word for Aboriginal woman which was also a Dharug word for woman/wife) with the word stiff to become strong black woman, a name which caused debate about use of the word gin.

Brenda Gifford is a Yuin woman, originally from Wreck Bay on the south coast of NSW. A composer and classically trained saxophonist, pianist and teacher, she has twenty years of extensive experience as a musician. She was a member of the band ‘Mixed Relations’ with Bart Willoughby from No Fixed Address. She has toured extensively around Australia and internationally to Native American communities and the Pacific Islands. Brenda has been commissioned by the Canberra International Music festival, Ensemble Offspring, ABC and the Sydney Symphony. She has conducted over 100 interviews and oral histories with Aboriginal musicians and has curated notes and blogs. Brenda is currently studying composition at ANU and is part of the Composing Women program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.