Featured artists
Daniel and David Wilfred
Daniel and David Wilfred - The Wilfred Brothers Daniel and David Wilfred are traditional song keepers from the remote community of Ngukurr in the Northern Territory. Daniel sings in language, and is the keeper of Yolngu manikay (public songs) from North East Arnhem Land that can be traced back for over 40,000 years. David plays the yidaki (didgeridoo) and is the Djunggayi (manager) of the manikay. Theirs is the oldest continuously practised music tradition in the world.
Daniel Wilfred, Voice, bilma
Daniel Wilfred is a Wagiläk man from Ngukurr, NT. He was born in Nhulunbuy, skin name Wamut. He’s a ceremonial leader for the Wagiläk people, singing manikay and playing bilma at ceremonies in Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Groote Eylandt and surrounding areas. He studied closely with his Elders, including song man Roy Ashley from Beswick, NT. He plays with Hand to Earth and the Australian Art Orchestra and has shared his songs and culture with people around the world for more than 15 years. Daniel was the recipient of the 2019 Arts Fellowship by the Northern Territory. Together with David, he was awarded the NT Luminary Award for ‘cultural leadership and sustained creative contributions in Australia and beyond’ during the 2020 Art Music Awards by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre.
Photo credit: Sarah Walker
David Wilfred, Yidaki, voice, dance
David Yipininy Wilfred is a Ritharrŋu man, and the traditional Djunggayi (manager) of the manikay of the country of Nyilipidgi. He lives in Ngukurr, NT and teaches song and dance to the children at the Ngukurr School. He plays with Hand to Earth and the Australian Art Orchestra and has shared his songs and culture with people around the world for more than 15 years. Together with Daniel, he was awarded the NT Luminary Award for ‘cultural leadership and sustained creative contributions in Australia and beyond’ during the 2020 Art Music Awards by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre.
Photo credit: Sarah Walker
Monash SZCSoMP staff
Dr Nicole Canham, Clarinet, Unit Coordinator Music in Culture Study Tour
Churchill Fellow, Nicole Canham (clarinet and tarogato), is an award-winning and versatile musician who is committed to creating transformative arts and educational experiences, and to building new audiences for art music. In 2020, Nicole joined the faculty of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, as Wind Program Coordinator. In this role, she focuses on performance, teaching and scholarship, which has become an integral aspect of her artistic practice. Churchill Fellow, Nicole Canham (clarinet and tarogato), is an award-winning and versatile musician who is committed to creating transformative arts and educational experiences, and to building new audiences for art music. In 2020, Nicole joined the faculty of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, as Wind Program Coordinator. As an educator, she ignites creative sparks, guiding aspiring musicians to discover their unique voices. As a scholar, Nicole specialises in musicians’ careers education and pathways and precarious work, presenting her research at leading conferences around the world and delivering keynote addresses on the future of work in music. Nicole is a qualified career development practitioner, completing a Graduate Diploma of Career Education and Development through RMIT in 2019. Her book on transformational approaches to musicians’ career development will be published by Routledge in late 2021.
Photo credit: Peter Hislop
Aaron Wyatt, Music in Culture Study Tour Lecturer, Composer & Conductor
Aaron is a violist, violinist, conductor, composer, programmer, and academic. Originally from Perth, he spent many years as a regular casual with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra before moving to Melbourne to take up an assistant lecturer position at Monash. A member of the Decibel New Music ensemble, he also develops their animated graphic notation app, the Decibel ScorePlayer. In 2021 he became the first Indigenous Australian to conduct a state symphony orchestra in concert, and has since gone on to have engagements with the Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, as well as being the artistic director of Ensemble Dutala.
Niki Johnson, Percussion
Niki Johnson is a percussionist and composer-performer whose experimental musical practice incorporates interdisciplinary collaboration, improvisation, contemporary classical repertoire, and performance art. She collaborates with fine-artists and musicians to create new artworks existing in the liminal spaces of art mediums. Her current PhD research at Monash University explores percussionists' collaborations with sculptors and designers, and the process of co-creating, and composing for new sculptural musical instruments. Niki was a 2019-2022 Speak Percussion Bespoke Artist, and a 2021 Classical Freedman nominee. She performs with Ensemble Offspring, is the co-artistic director of performance art duo Throat Pleats, and has recorded percussion for Trackdown Fox studios, and the ABC. Current project highlights include performing Damien Ricketson's Sound Touch for solo percussionist at Phoenix Central Park, and performing her own solo vibraphone composition at the PowerHouse Museum Jane Sheldon x Culinary Archive 2022.
Dean Sky Lucas, Piano
Outstanding collaborative accompanist on all keyboard instruments and singer, Dean Sky- Lucas has performed all over the world. Widely broadcast in Australia on ABC FM, Radio National and on Radio New Zealand, Dean has often performed live as a pianist and countertenor. During his appointment from 2010 until 2016 as the Coordinator and Lecturer of Collaborative piano at the University of Auckland, Dean appeared on radio New Zealand as their regular Opera critic and he was a much sought after accompanist with the New Zealand Choral organisation, Choirs Aotearoa, with whom he accompanied Voices New Zealand - the professional ensemble, and toured often with the National Youth Choir throughout the North and South Islands and internationally through Europe and the United Kingdom with this repertoire broadcast on the BBC. Dean has performed in the Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane International festivals as a pianist and singer and he has performed with the MSO, Orchestra Victoria and TSO on organ, harpsichord and Celeste. His recordings have received critical acclaim including a 5-star review from the New Zealand Herald for his recording with Ben Hoadley (bassoon) of a CD of works from the 20th and 21st centuries for bassoon and piano.
Student performers
Hugh Blackett
Camilla Burrows
Felicia Kung
Ning Lin
Gemma Livingstone
Sibusisiwe Maswaure
Liv Mirrington
Oskar Moore
Elizabeth Rayner
Eliza Romano
Sullivan Tung
Tristan Western
Images: Photo credit Sibusisiwe Maswaure