Liza Lim (born 30 August 1966) is an Australian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Lim writes concert music (

chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...

and orchestral works) as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her interests in Asian ritual culture, the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.

Early life and education

Liza Lim was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia, to Chinese parents. They were doctors who during her early years spent long periods working and studying in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

, and she was sent to boarding school. At the age of 11, she was encouraged by her teachers at

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne , motto_translation = The law of God is the Lamp of Life , established = 1875 , type = Independent, single-sex, day and boarding, Christian school , denomination = Presbyterian , princip ...

to turn from piano and violin to composition. She has said that she "owes everything to them". Lim earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, her Master of Music from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

(1996), and her Bachelor of Arts from the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

(1986). She has studied composition in Melbourne with Richard David Hames, Riccardo Formosa, and in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw.

Career

Lim has been a guest lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer School, the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, major Australian universities and at the

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...

Agora Festival. She was a lecturer of

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

at Melbourne University in 1991. Lim was the guest curator for the twilight concert series of the 2006

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

. Lim has been commissioned by some of the most eminent performers in the world including the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

(for whom she wrote ''Ecstatic Architecture'' for the inaugural season of the

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

-designed

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

Ensemble InterContemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...

Ensemble Modern Ensemble Modern is an international ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries. Hi ...

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

Arditti String Quartet The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. Th ...

and th
Cikada Ensemble
Her work has featured at festivals such as ,

MaerzMusik MaerzMusik is a festival of the Berliner Festspiele and has been held annually since 2002 in March at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other venues. It is the successor festival to the Musik-Biennale Berlin and is considered one of the most im ...

at the

Berliner Festspiele The Berliner Festspiele (German for Berlin Festivals) are a series of festivals, art exhibitions, and other cultural events organized all year long by a common organization in Berlin. Events are held at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, a pre-ex ...

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...

and all the major Australian festivals. Since 1986, Lim has worked extensively with members of the

ELISION Ensemble The ELISION Ensemble (often referred to as simply ELISION) is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works. The ensemble comprises a core of around 20 virtuoso musici ...

; she is married to Daryl Buckley, its artistic director. In 2005, Lim was appointed the composer-in-residence with the

Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and firs ...

for two years. Among other works, the orchestra commissioned—jointly with the radio station

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...

—her work ''The Compass''; in its premiere performance on 23 August 2006 at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

it was conducted by Alexander Briger, William Barton played the

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

. Sponsored by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD (german: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), was founded in 1925 and is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation. Organisation ''DAAD'' is a ...

, she spent one year in 2007/2008 as artist-in-residence in Berlin where she developed her third opera, '' The Navigator'', inspired by

Tristan and Isolde Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...

to a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Patricia Sykes. She was appointed professor in composition at the

University of Huddersfield , mottoeng = Thus not for you alone , established = 1825 – Huddersfield Science and Mechanics' Institute1992 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £2.47 million (2015) , chancellor = George W. Buckley , vice_chancel ...

in March 2008. In March 2017 her appointment to the composition unit at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the old ...

was announced.

Selected works

Stage works

* 1991–93 ''The Oresteia. A Memory Theatre'', opera * 1994–95 ''Bar-do'i-thos-grol'', 7-night installation performance based on '' The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', artist Domenico de Clario * 1991–99 ''Yuè Lìng Jié (Moon Spirit Feasting)'', A Chinese ritual street opera, libretto by Beth Yahp * 2005 ''Glass House Mountains'', installation work with artist Judy Watson * 2008 ''The Navigator'', opera for 5 singers, 16 instruments and electronics, libretto by Patricia Sykes

Orchestra works

* 1994–95 ''Sri-Vidya, Utterances of Adoration'' for choir and orchestra * 1996 ''The Alchemical Wedding'' for orchestra (22 instruments) * 2001–02 ''Ecstatic Architecture'', commissioned for the inaugural season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall * 2004 ''Immer Fliessender (Ever Flowing)'', a companion-piece for Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony * 2005 ''Flying Banner'', "Fanfare" for orchestra, after Wang To * 2005–06 ''The Compass'' for orchestra with flute and didgeridoo soloists * 2010 ''Pearl, Ochre, Hair String'' for orchestra * 2010 ''The Guest'' for orchestra with

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

soloist

Ensemble works

* 1988–89 ''Garden of Earthly Desire'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, electric guitar, mandolin, harp, violin, viola, violoncello, contrabass, percussion * 1989 ''Voodoo Child'' for soprano solo, flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin, violoncello, trombone, piano, percussion * 1990 ''Diabolical Birds'' for piccolo, bass clarinet, piano, violin, violoncello, vibraphone * 1993 ''Li Shang Yin'' for coloratura soprano, 15 instruments * 1995 ''Street of Crocodiles'' for flute, oboe, alto saxophone, alto trombone, cimbalom/cymbal, violin, viola, violoncello, baroque violoncello * 1999 ''Veil'' for flute/bass flute, bass clarinet, trumpet in C, percussion, piano, violin, violoncello * 2001 ''Machine'' for Contacting the Dead for twenty-seven instruments * 2005 ''Songs Found in Dream'' for oboe, bass clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, 2 percussion, viola, cello * 2005 ''Mother Tongue'' for soprano and 15 instruments, poems by Patricia Sykes"Singing in Tongues"
by

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...

, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', 28 April 2014; review of ''Mother Tongue'' at the

Miller Theatre Miller Theatre at Columbia University is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. It is a performing arts producer dedicated to developing and presenting new music. In 1988, the former McMillin Theater was renovated an ...

, 2014 * 2006 ''Shimmer Songs'' for string quartet, harp, 3 percussion * 2006 ''City of Falling Angels'' for 12 percussion * 2007 ''Sensorium'' for soprano, C-tenor recorders, baroque harp, viola d'amore * 2010–11 ''Tongue of the Invisible'', a work for improvising pianist, baritone and 16 musicians * 2014 ''Winding Bodies: 3 Knots'' for alto flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, violoncello and double bass

Chamber music

* 1996 ''Inguz (Fertility)'' for clarinet in A, violoncello * 1997 ''The Heart's Ear'' for flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello * 1999 ''Sonorous Bodies'' for koto and voice solo, in collaboration with video artist Judith Wright * 2004 ''In the Shadow's Light'' for string quartet, commissioned by Festival d'automne à Paris for the Kairos Quartett * 2004–05 ''The Quickening'' for soprano and qin, commissioned by the Festival d'Automne à Paris * 2008 ''Ochred String'' for oboe, viola, cello, double bass * 2013–14 ''The Weaver's Knot'' for string quartet

Solo works

* 1992 ''Amulet'' for viola solo * 1997 ''Philtre for Hardanger'' fiddle solo or retuned violin * 2007 ''Wild Winged–one'' for solo trumpet * 2007 ''Weaver–of–Fictions'' for alto Ganassi recorder * 2007 ''The Long Forgetting'' for tenor Ganassi recorder * 2008 ''Well of Dreams'' for solo alto trombone * 2008 ''Sonorous Body'' for solo B clarinet * 2011 ''Love Letter'' for solo instrument

Awards and nominations

APRA Classical Music Awards

The APRA Classical Music Awards are presented annually by

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA) and

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes '' ...

(AMC). , - , rowspan="2",

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, , ''Flying Banner (After Wang To)'' (Liza Lim) –

Sydney Symphony The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and fi ...

Gianluigi Gelmetti Gianluigi Gelmetti OMRI, (11 September 1945 – 11 August 2021) was an Italian-Monégasque conductor and composer. Early life Gianluigi Gelmetti was born on 11 September 1945 in Rome, Italy. When 16-years old, Sergiu Celibidache let him conduct ...

(conductor) , , Orchestral Work of the Year , , , - , Liza Lim – Sydney Symphony Composer Residency , , Outstanding Contribution by an Individual , ,

Don Banks Music Award

The

Don Banks Music Award The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, ...

was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

in honour of

Don Banks Donald Oscar Banks (25 October 19235 September 1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music. Early life and education Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He learned the saxophone as a boy in Aust ...

, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. , - , 2018 , Liza Lim , Don Banks Music Award , , - *1996

fellowship *1996 (inaugural) Young Australian Creative Fellowship *2002 APRA Classical Music Award (Best Composition) *200
Paul Lowin Award
for ''Ecstatic Architecture''

References

External links

*
Australian Music Centre: biography, catalogue of works, recordings, digital samples, articlesRecordings at AmazonLiza Lim's new opera at the Opéra national de ParisPublisher's website: Liza Lim at Ricordi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Liza 1966 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers APRA Award winners Australian expatriates in Brunei Australian expatriates in England Australian expatriates in Germany Australian expatriates in the United States Australian women classical composers Australian opera composers Women opera composers Living people Victorian College of the Arts alumni 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers