Professor Liza Lim

Biography

Director of CeReNeM

Australian composer, Liza Lim is Professor of Composition and Director of CeReNeM (www.cerenem.org), the Centre for Research in New Music at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Professor Lim’s research and compositional work is focused on the area of intercultural exchange looking particularly at Chinese and at Australian Indigenous art, aesthetics and ritual culture. Internationally, her work in this area has been recognised through major commissions, regular performances at key venues in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Venice and London and a distinguished publication history with Ricordi (Milan, London & Munich). Awards include the Paul Lowin Prize, Fromm Foundation award (Harvard), Australia Council and Ian Potter Cultural Trust Senior Fellowships.

Lim’s work examines the role of ambivalence, particularly in diasporic cultural conditions, as a space for the transformation of cultural knowledge. This is allied with a strong interest in the politics of translation and other kinds of transactions in cultural meaning which she has explored in three operatic works, The Oresteia (1993), Moon Spirit Feasting (1999) and The Navigator (2008).

Her compositional work in the area of narrative multiplicity is informed by analyses of Chinese poetry, calligraphic structure and the many traditions of folk stories that ‘don’t add up’. Key works include Machine for Contacting the Dead (2000), commissioned by the Ensemble InterContemporain Paris in association with the Cité de la Musique’s exhibition of archaeological artefacts from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zheng and performed in Paris and Basel in 2000. Related to this work is the opera Moon Spirit Feasting (1997-1999), commissioned by the Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals, which investigates Chinese ritual culture and theatre as an evolving form under diasporic conditions in South East Asia. Following seasons in Australia, the opera toured to Berlin, Zurich and Tokyo in 2002 before making a return season to the Brisbane Festival in 2006.

Lim’s collaborations with Chinese, Japanese and Korean musicians inform her interest in kinaesthetic approaches to performance whereby the physicality of gesture is interrogated as the basis for formulating new approaches to instrumental technique and listening culture. Key publications (Ricordi, Milan & London) in this area include Koto (1993), The Alchemical Wedding (1996) and three important commissions from the Festival d’Automne Paris, In the Shadow’s Light (2004), The Quickening (2005) and Mother Tongue (2005).

More recently, her explorations of Australian Aboriginal culture, through research and collaborations with Indigenous artist Judy Watson (Glass House Mountains installation project, 2005, Queensland Music Festival) and with Yolngu women elders of the Gumatj clan from Yirrkala, in her role as curator of the music series ‘As Night Softly Falls’ for the 2006 Adelaide Festival, has led her to look at aspects of Indigenous aesthetics and non-western epistemologies of time and space in art, music and story-telling. Key publications include the conference paper ‘A Hidden Centre’ (2006, Edith Cowan University, keynote for 2005 TURA new music conference) and compositions (all Ricordi London), Songs found in dream (2005, Salzburg Festival commission with extensive performances including Spain, Berlin, Melbourne, LA, Warsaw, Singapore, Cologne), Shimmer Songs (2006, Fromm Foundation Commission, San Francisco Contemporary Music players) and The Compass (2006, Sydney Symphony 2006 season and 2008 Italian tour, also performed by orchestras in Munich, Venice, Paris).

She was awarded a Senior Composers Fellowship from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust in 2007 for a project investigating aspects of Aboriginal cultural economy focussed on Riji Jakoli (carved, orchred pearl shells from the Broome/Kimberley region) as the basis for chamber music and orchestral compositions. This has resulted in the publication (Ricordi London) of Ochred String (2008, also released on NEOS CDs with performances in Munich, Berlin, Melbourne and subject of a documentary by Festival d’Automne and Pandore tv for Arte), Invisibility (2009, performances in Huddersfield, London, Paris, Darmstadt) and Pearl, Ochre, Hair String (2009-10, performances in Munich July 2010 and Perth Nov 2010) as well as the journal article ‘Investigating an aesthetics of presence’ (2009).

Career Highlights

Liza Lim has received major International commissions from some of the world’s most eminent cultural institutions including the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Inauguration of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall (2004), Bavarian Radio Orchestra (2006, 2008, 2009), Ensemble InterContemporain Paris (1992, 1999, 2000, 2005), Ensemble Modern (1993, 1996), Salzburg Festival (2005), Lucerne Festival (2007), Donaueschingen Festival (2001, 2010) amongst others. She has had a twenty-year association with Australia’s ELISION Ensemble who have been a ‘creative laboratory’ for many projects. She was Composer-in-residence with the Sydney Symphony in 2005-06 and has also worked with the Melbourne Symphony, BBC Symphony, West German, South West German and Saarbrucken Radio Orchestras, RAI Italian National Orchestra and Finnish Radio Orchestra. Retrospectives and portrait concerts of her work have been presented in Bremen (1998), Zurich (1996, 2000), Helsinki (2003), Paris (2005), Warsaw and Berlin (2008) and her music is regularly programmed and broadcast throughout Europe as well as Australia and the United States.

She has created large scale projects including opera, concerts and installation works for all of the Australian arts festivals, notably receiving two Major Festivals Initiative Fund Awards totalling $800,000 to develop and produce her operas Moon Spirit Feasting (Adelaide Festival 2000; Melbourne International Festival 2002 with further seasons in Berlin, Zurich, Tokyo and Brisbane) and The Navigator (Brisbane and Melbourne Festivals 2007 with further performances in Moscow and Paris).

Awards recognizing Lim's work include Australia's most prestigious composition prize, the Paul Lowin Award for orchestral composition, a Fromm Foundation Award from Harvard University, Young Australian Creative Fellowship, Senior Fellowships from the Ian Potter Foundation and Australia Council, and a DAAD Artist-in-residence grant to live and work in Berlin in 2007-08.

She has a distinguished twenty-year publication history with Ricordi (Milan,  London & Munich) with nearly fifty works in her catalogue including three operas and seven large-scale orchestral works. Compact discs of her compositions are released on Hat-Art, ABC-Classics, Dischi Ricordi, Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, Neos and Edition RZ.

Liza Lim gained her PhD from the University of Queensland, Master of Music from the University of Melbourne and Bachelor of Arts (music) from the Victorian College of the Arts. She was Lecturer in Composition at the University of Melbourne in 1991.

Elsewhere in academia, she has given guest lectures and masterclasses at the University of California San Diego & Berkeley, Cornell University, New York University, Manhattan School of Music and was a key speaker at the ‘Building Music’ conference at the Getty Research Institute LA in 2004. More recently, in 2009, she has given a ‘New Directions in Research’ seminar for the Institute of Musical Research, London, was in residence for a week at New York University (Steinhardt and Arts & Sciences), lectured at the Royal College of Music London, RMIT’s Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory in Melbourne and has presented talks on projects connected with Chinese diaspora culture at China House (a research institute of New York University) and at the National University of Singapore. In October 2009, she gave presentations on the nature of the collaborative process in the context of the colloquium ‘Lieux de Musique IV’ (Paris) and as part of the Australia-Berlin ‘Hybrid Arts Festival’ held at Radialsystem Berlin.

She has taught at a number of international summer schools including the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (1998), Bregenz Opera Masterclass (2007), Tokyo Wonder Site (2007) and is on the teaching faculty for Darmstadt (2010) and the Fondation Royaumont in France (2010).

Lim's music is published by Universal Music - Ricordi (Milano, London & Munich). Recordings of her music have been released on HatArt, ABC-Classics, Dischi Ricordi and Vox Australis.

Further links:
www.elision.org.au/composers/lim/index.html

Research & Scholarship

- highlighting most recent achievements

Research Areas

• Composition
• Contemporary opera/music theatre
• Collaborative installation work
• Cross-cultural aesthetics (Asian & Australian Aboriginal art, ritual & performance practice)

Recent Project:

The Navigator (2006-08), opera for 5 singers, 16 instruments and electronics, premiered by ELISION July 2008, Brisbane Festival, Australia, at the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, 9-12 Oct 2008 and 25, 26,27 June 2009, Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Moscow.

Published by Ricordi London, Score RICL082

Next performance: 8 Dec 2009, Festival d'Automne Paris. For more information, see mhm.hud.ac.uk/cerenem/projects/liza-lim/

Invited Research Lectures/Masterclasses

3 November 2009, Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Huddersfield University, ‘Staging an Aesthetics of Presence’ (with Séverine Ballon, ‘cello)

11 October 2009, RadialSystem Berlin (Hybrid-Arts Festival), together with Jeremias Schwarzer (recorder) and Natalie Knapp (moderator), ‘Muss das so Klingen?’ (Must it sounds like that?)

18 August 2009, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, National University of Singapore, composition masterclass and lecture: ‘Structures of Slippage’.

3 August 2009, RMIT Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, ‘Structures of Slippage’

21 April 2009, New York University (Arts & Sciences), ‘Fugue of the Senses; Geometry of Desire’.

21 April 2009, Manhattan School of Music, performers’ masterclass on ‘Inguz’ & ‘Chang-O’.

17 April 2009, New York University (Steinhardt), with Marilyn Nonken (piano), ‘The Four Seasons (after Cy Twombly)’

14 April 2009, China House, New York University, ‘Machine for Contacting the Dead’

4 March 2009, Royal College of Music, ‘Fugue of the senses, Geometry of Desire’.

Thursday 26 February 2009
‘Directions in Musical Research’ Seminar, London
(Institute for Musical Research, Senate House, Room NG14), 5 – 6.30 pm
Liza Lim (Huddersfield) Chair: Peter Wiegold (Brunel)
'Fugue of the senses; geometry of desire': a Discussion of my Recent Opera The Navigator

Recent publications:

Composition (Scores)

Invisibility, ‘cello solo. Duration: 10’, Score Munich, Ricordi Munich, 2009.

The Four Seasons (After Cy Twombly), piano solo in four movements. Duration: 30’
Score RICL120, London, Ricordi London, 2009.

The Navigator. opera for 5 singers, 16 musicians, electronics. duration: 90’.
Score RICL082, London, Ricordi London, 2007, rev.2008.

Sonorous Body. solo B-flat clarinet. 12’. Score RIC112. London, Ricordi London, 2008

Well of Dreams. solo alto trombone, 5’. Score RICL111. London, Ricordi London, 2008.

Ochred String. for oboe, viola, violoncello, double bass, 14’. Score RICL110.
London, Ricordi London, 2008.

the long forgetting. for tenor Ganassi recorder. duration: 5’. Score RICL086,
London, Ricordi London, 2007.

Wild winged-one. solo trumpet. duration: 8’. Score RICL085, London, Ricordi London, 2007.

weaver-of-fictions. for alto Ganassi recorder. duration: 5’. Score RICL084, London, Ricordi London, 2007.

City of Falling Angels. 12 percussion. duration: 18’. Score RICL083, London, Ricordi London, 2006.

Sensorium. Soprano, counter tenor, tenor Ganassi and contrabass recorders,
harp, viola d’amore. Duration: 12’. Score RICL082a, London, Ricordi London, 2007.

Shimmer Songs. string quartet, harp, 3 percussion. duration: 13’. Score RICL059,
London, Ricordi London, 2006.

The Compass. orchestra with flute and didgeridoo soloists. duration: 22’.
Score RICL058, London, Ricordi London, 2006.

CD and DVD recordings

Lim, Liza (2009) Ochred String, on Music Viva Festival 2008, Neos 10926

Lim, Liza (2008) Weaver-of-fictions on ‘Weaver of Fictions’ CD, Genevieve Lacey, recorder,
ABC-Classics 4766439,
shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=395794

Lim, Liza interviewed in Sehnsucht Berlin (The City Named Desire) (2009), a film about artists of the DAAD Residency programme in Berlin, DVD Dir. Peter Zach, ISBN:978-3-89848-967-6. www.absolutmedien.de/main.php?view=film&id=1348

Book Chapter

Lim, Liza. ‘Red, White, Black: Three stages of illumination’. in Judith Wright: Conversations. pp. 49-52. New Plymouth, Govett-Brewster Gallery, 2007.

Performances

8 Dec 2009, The Navigator, opera, 90’, ELISION cond. Manuel Nawri singers: Talise Trevigne, Andrew Watts, Omar Ebrahim, Deborah Kayser, Philip Larson. Opera Bastille, Festival d'Automne Paris

26 Nov 2009, Invisibility (premiere), Séverine Ballon, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

29 Nov 2009, Songs found in dream, Musik Fabrik cond. Enno Poppe, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

27 Nov 2009, The Four Seasons (after Cy Twombly), Rolf Hind (piano), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

24 Nov 2009, weaver-of-fictions; the long forgetting…, Genevieve Lacey (recorders), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

19-23 Nov 2009, 5 performances of Sonorous Body in Switzerland, Manfred Spitaler (clarinet)

• 3 Nov, Gare du Nord, Basel
• 22 Nov, ONO, Berne
• 21 Nov, Kunsthaus Zurich
• 20 Nov, Matthäuskirche, Lucerne
• 19 Nov, Forum Siegfried, Zofingen

17 Nov 2009, The Four Seasons (after Cy Twombly), Marilyn Nonken (piano), Menil Collection, Houston, Texas

12 Nov 2009, Sonorous Body, Heather Roche, St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield

11 Nov 2009, The Heart’s Ear, Kammerensemble neue musik Berlin, Teatro San Martin, Argentina

Nov 2009, Sonorous Body, E Michael Richards, Festival new American Music, CSUS

5 Nov 2009, Sonorous Body, Heather Roche, The Space, London

1 Nov 2009, Sonorous Body, Michael E Richards, Rive Gauche Concert series, Torino, Italy

11 Oct 2009, weaver-of-fictions, Jeremias Schwarzer, Radial System Berlin as part of Hybrid-Arts Festival

6 September, Inguz (fertility), Golden Fur, Sydney Conservatorium

4 September, Inguz (fertility), Red Light Ensemble, The Stone, New York

15 August 2009, City of Falling Angels, Ensemble XII cond. Steve Schick, Conrad Prebys Centre, UCSD, San Diego

August 8-29, 2009, 10 Performances of Xi (double happiness) for 6 solo voices, The Song Company on tour:

• 8 August, Orange - Orange Regional Conservatorium
8 August, 7:30pm
• 9 August, Bathurst - All Saints' Cathedral
• 12 August, Wollongong - Wollongong City Gallery
• 13 August, Melbourne - Melbourne Recital Centre
• 21 August, Canberra - University House
21 August
• 22 August, Campbelltown - Campbelltown Arts Centre
• 23 August, Blue Mountains - Blackheath Uniting Church
• 26 August, Sydney - Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
• 27 August, Newcastle - Newcastle Conservatorium
• 29 August, Southern Highlands - Frensham School
• 8 August 2009, Inguz (fertility), Golden Fur, Clifton Community Arts Centre, Melbourne

June 25,26,27, 2009, The Navigator, opera, 90’, ELISION cond. Manuel Nawri singers: Talise Trevigne, Andrew Watts, Omar Ebrahim, Deborah Kayser, Philip Larson.  Director, Barrie Kosky 8th Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Moscow
http://chekhovfest.ru/pages/viii--festival/the-navigator.php

10 Feb 2009, The Four Seasons (after Cy Twombly) (2009), solo piano, 30’, premiere by Marilyn Nonken, Sibelius Academy Concert Hall, Musica Nova Helsinki
http://www.musicanova.fi/en/program/event/12
Also:  March 19 , McGill University, Montreal 
March 21, The Music Gallery, Toronto
April 20, Frederick Loewe Theatre, New York
May 23 , Williams & Russ Photography, Woodstock

5 Feb 2009, Sonorous Body, for solo Eb Clar, 12’, E. Michael Richards, Richmond, USA; also 8 Feb, Baltimore; 25 Feb, Hartford, 17 March Piacenza (Italy)

12Jan 2009, Wild-Winged-One for solo trumpet, 8’, Tristram Williams, CalArts

25 Nov 2008, Sonorous Body, for solo Eb Clar, 12’, Inguz (fertility), for clar and v’cello, 6’ Wild-Winged-One for solo trumpet, 8’, ELISION soloists, King’s Place, London, 200th Anniversary celebration of Casa Ricordi

6 Nov 2008, The Compass, work for orchestra with flute & didgeridoo soloists, 22’ SudwestRundfunk orchestra cond Kazushi Ono, Grunhild Ott (fl), William Barton (didgeridoo), Festival d’Automne Paris

19 Oct 2008, Songs found in dream, for 8 musicians, 16’ Musik Fabrik cond. Christian Eggan, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne,;And also as part of Musik Fabrik’s education programme ‘Kinder Uni’

9-12 Oct 2008, The Navigator, opera, 90’
ELISION cond. Manuel Nawri, director Barrie Kosky Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts

10 Oct 2008, Milan; 8 Oct, Verona Teatro Nuovo, Autunno Musicale Festival, 7 Oct, Modena Teatro Communale,  6 Oct, Roma Teatro dell’Opera, 4 Oct, Napoli Teatro di San Carlo, 3 Oct, Sienna Assessorato allo Cultura, 1 Oct, Torino Unione Musicale, 29 Sept, Meraner Musikwochen.  The Compass, work for orchestra with flute & didgeridoo soloists, 22’  Sydney Symphony Italian tour, Sydney Symphony cond. Gianluigi Gelmetti, soloists Rosamund Plummer (fl); William Barton (didgeridoo)
27 Sept 2008, Koto, 8 insts, 12’, International Ensemble Modern Academy, cond. Clemens Heil, Frankfurt.

16 Sept 2008, Sonorous Body, Eb Clar, 12’, Richard Haynes, Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney.

30,31 July, 1,2 August 2008,
The Navigator*, opera for 5 singers, 16 instrumentalists and electronics, 90’
Libretto by Patricia Sykes, ELISION cond Manuel Nawri,
Singers: Andrew Watts, Talise Trevigne, Omar Ebrahim, Deborah Kayser, Philip Larson, Directed by Barrie Kosky, Design Alice Babbidge,  Lighting Damien Cooper,
Sound Michael Hewes, Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane Festival
http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/e_thenavigator.html

July 2008, City of Falling Angels. 12 percussion 18’, Darmstadt percussionists dir. Christian Dierstein. Darmstadt Summer course.

13 July 2008, Wild Winged-one, solo trumpet, 8’ Tristram Williams, Government House, Sydney.

23 March 2008, weaver-of fictions, alto Ganassi recorder, 5’, Genevieve Lacey,
Four Winds Festival, Bermagui (Australia).

15 & 16 March 2008 (3 performances)
17-24 March 2008 (sound installation version, 12:00-18:00 hrs each day)
Ton*. An installation project, 60’, Scena for mobiles, musicians and audience
with director Sabrina Hoelzer, Zeitgenossische Oper and artist Volker Maerz,
Genevieve Lacey (alto & tenor Ganassi recorders), Tristram Williams (trumpet/flugel horn)
Richard Haynes (clarinet), Benjamin Marks (alto trombone), co-production with ELISION,
St. Elisabeth Kirche, Berlin, 3 performances for Maerzmusik, Berlinerfestspiele,

9 March 2008, weaver-of-fictions, alto Ganassi recorder, 5’, Genevieve Lacey
Sensorium*, concert version of Scene 2 of The Navigator for soprano, counter-tenor, tenor Ganassi/contrabass recorder, Baroque harp, viola d’amore, 12’
Ochred String, for ob, vla, ‘cello, dbass, 14’
Songs found in dream, forob, bass cl, sax, tpt, 2 perc, vc, dbass, 16’
Mother Tongue, for soprano & 15 instruments, 40’
ELISION cond. Simon Hewett, soprano Susan Narucki, counter-tenor Andrew Watts
Portrait Concert, Maerzmusik Berlinerfestspiele, Jewish Museum Glashof.

14 Feb 2008, Veil, for 8 instruments, 12’, Ensemble Modern Akademie,
Festival in the ZKM Cube, Karlsruhe.

10 Feb 2008, Ochred String*, for oboe, viola, ‘cello. Double bass, 14’, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orch Soloists, Musica Viva Festival, Villa Stuck. (played twice).

Broadcasts (selected)

Lim, Liza. weaver-of-fictions, 5’, Sensorium, 12’, Ochred String,14’
Songs found in dream, 16’, Mother Tongue, 40’
ELISION cond. Simon Hewett, soprano Susan Narucki, counter-tenor Andrew Watts
Maerzmusik Berlinerfestspiele concert programme broadcast:
Deutschland Radio Kultur, 10 March 2008
Norddeutschland Radio Kultur, 11 June 2008.

Lim, Liza. Ochred String, 14’, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orch Soloists, Musica Viva Festival,
Bayern 4 Klassik – Horizonte, musica viva Festival 2008, 17 April 2008. 

Lim, Liza. Tree of Life, 12’, BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. J. Kalitzke

BBC3 ‘Hear & Now’, 1 March 2008.

Interviews

• ‘Alchemical Journeys’. Liza Lim interviewed by Jane Gruchy. Interview in two parts. published in short form, Alias, weekend magazine of Il Manifesto, Italy, 22 September 2007. and in full in Resonate, www.resonatemagazine.com.au, online journal of the Australian Music Centre, November/ December 2007.
• Liza Lim interviewed by Andrew Ford in: Heinno Anni, ed. Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz: 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show. ABC Books, 2008

Research Outputs

Areas for Research Supervision

Prof Lim supervises PhD and MA research students in composition, particularly portfolios exploring the following areas:

• Contemporary music theatre/opera
• Cross-art form practice, installation-based collaborative work including improvisation
• Extended vocal and instrumental writing (including non-western instruments) and issues of performance practice and notation
• Non-western aesthetics and intercultural issues
• The orchestra in the 21st century