Artists

Hamish Upton is an Aotearoa/New Zealand–born percussionist and composer working across notated and improvised music. based in Naarm (Melbourne)

His practice explores the intersection of acoustic percussion, electronics, and environmental sound. In 2024, he was a visiting artist at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch), presenting a solo recital featuring his work Rotoiti, Boxing Day 2023 for vibraphone, steel pan, electronics, and field recordings.

Hamish is the co-founder of Ossicle Duo with trombonist Benjamin Anderson and has performed with Speak Percussion, ELISION Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Victorian Opera, Forest Collective. He has co-created an album with Sleep D and Ad Lib Collective, and performance highlights include Speak Percussion’s season of Scream Star (2022) presented at Arts House, Victorian Opera’s Sweeney Todd in Melbourne (2024) and Dubai (2025), and performing regularly with James Hullick & the BOLT Ensemble in Sydney in 2024 and 2025. Hamish studied at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music, completing a Master of Music Research with Griffith University.

In Residence at Bundanon

During my residency, I will combine my percussionist background with my growing interest in improvisation, electronics, and sound design. I will immerse myself in the landscape and look to find creative ways to interact with it as a musical score. Site specific creation will be the key to my artistic process, and I will draw on material from the area to record improvisations, then respond to these recordings as scores to create layered compositions.