Artists

Diana Chester sound artist, Sonya Lifschitz pianist and Damien Ricketson composer and academic based in Sydney & Newcastle (Bidjigal, Gadigal & Awabakal country)

Diana’s work employs feminist, decolonial, and post-anthropocentric approaches. Her installations have featured internationally, including the Smithsonian and Mona Foma. Chester is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Sydney and Vice President of the World Listening Project.

Sonya is celebrated for imaginative collaborations across music, theatre, dance, and visual arts. Her repertoire spans early music to contemporary works, and she has performed internationally at venues including the Barbican Centre, Venice Biennale, and major Australian festivals. Lifschitz is a Lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

Damien composer and academic at the Sydney Conservatorium multisensory works explore vibration, the body, and listening beyond the ear. Founder of Ensemble Offspring, his productions include Sound Touch, The Howling Girls, and The Secret Noise, earning international recognition including the Music Theatre Now Prize and Art Music Awards.

In Residence at Bundanon

Chester, Lifschitz and Ricketson hope to create a spacious sound-based work on the aesthetics of listening to our environment. Inspired by a Tibetan tale where all songs dwell within the white noise of a waterfall, the project imagines the piano as an aeolian harp – catching fragments of nature’s stories and sculpting them into music. The residency will culminate in a meditative work combining solo piano, field recordings, and custom instruments.