Artist Bios
Internationally acclaimed percussionist and Artistic Director/CEO of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes OAM has been described by the press as a ‘sorceress of percussion’. Claire won the 1999 Young Performers Award and completed her Masters degree at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories. She is the only Australian to win four APRA Art Music Luminary Awards and is the 2023 recipient of the Australian Women in Music Creative Leadership Award for her championing of female voices in music. Recent career highlights include the world premiere of Anne Cawrse’s marimba concerto written for her and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and solo performances at Bleach Festival, MONA, AFCM and with AYO’s Momentum Ensemble. Claire has been with Ensemble Offspring since its foundation in 1995.
Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaray writer, musician, composer and educator from NSW’s North West freshwater plains. A founding member of Indigenous folk duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has been performing nationally and internationally for the past twenty years. A participant of Ngarra-Burria since 2019, she writes about her experience: “Ngarra-Burria, put simply, has reinvigorated my ears, my mind and my spirit. It is not only a music program. It is a program about cultural responsibility, about singing land and story and country, and about what we Yuwaalaraay call the strengthening of dhuwi – our deepest breath, our essence – our soul.”
Melanie Mununggurr is a Djapu mother, poet, storyteller and performer. Her writing is all-encompassing of her identity as Yolngu, the triumphs and struggles of motherhood, neurodiversity, being queer and connections to land and culture. Melanie uses her connection to her land, culture and language to decolonise the literary and performance space through the use of Dhuwal language weaved throughout her poems.
The Boyd Music Series
The Boyd Music Series presents a collection of the world’s leading chamber musicians and renowned soloists from eastern and western classical traditions, featuring Australian debut performances.
The series is curated by Genevieve Lacey and developed in collaboration with Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Music Series. Returning for its second year in 2026, there will be six evocative concerts set against the backdrop of Bangli / the Shoalhaven River with CzechMate, Sunny Kim’s Ensemble Ochaye, duo Liam Byrne and Laura Vaughan, Ensemble Offspring, and the Australian Guitar Quartet.
Discover the Boyd Music Series
