LIZA LIM (born 1966, Perth, WA)

Internationally acclaimed composer Liza Lim combines the intelligence of modernism with visceral energy and vibrant colour.  A recurring thematic thread in her music is the exploration of the idea of crossing cultural boundaries and of ecstatic transformation. Her compositions explore a range of resources from opera and the orchestra to visual arts installations, often including non-Western instruments and have been performed by some of the world’s most eminent ensembles.  Notably, she was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to write the large orchestral work, Ecstatic Architecture to celebrate the inaugural season of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004.

She has been composer-in-residence with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the last two years producing the works Immer Fliessender, Flying Banner (After Wang To) and The Compass (jointly commissioned by Bayerischer Rundfunk/ Musica Viva).  Other recent achievements include a major feature in the Festival d’Automne à Paris 2005 who commissioned three new works (In the Shadow’s Light for the Kairos Quartett; The Quickening for soprano Deborah Kayser and qin Yang Chunwei and Mother Tongue, premiered by the Ensemble Intercontemporain).

‘The qin or Chinese zither is for me, an emblem of how the sensuous and the physical world connects with the numinous – how visceral experience is intertwined with the subtle realms of energy – the interplay of tactility and dream.’ (Liza Lim)

Klangforum Wien premiered Songs found in dream at the Salzburg Festival in August 2005 and ELISION presented the installation work Glass House Mountains, a work looking at Indigenous and European traces at this important Australian site, made in collaboration with artist Judy Watson for the Queensland Music Festival in July 2005.

Awards recognizing Liza Lim’s work include Australia’s most prestigious composition prize, the Paul Lowin Award for orchestral composition, the Young Australian Creative Fellowship, a two-year Australia Council Fellowship, the 2002 APRA Classical Music Award for “Best Composition” and a Fromm Foundation Commission to work with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She has been commissioned to write for ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Arditti String Quartet, ELISION, orchestras of Symphony Australia, and Festival d’Automne à Paris.  Liza has created large projects for the Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth Festivals as well as for the West and South West German Radio Orchestras.

In 2003, Liza Lim was a featured composer at both Musica Nova in Helsinki and the 09(03) Festival of New Zealand.  Portrait concerts of her work have been presented by Radio Bremen, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and Ensemble für neue Musik Zurich.  Her music has been celebrated at international festivals and concert seasons such as IRCAM Paris, Venice Biennale, Cologne Philharmonie, Wien Modern, Salzburg Festspiele, Huddersfield, Milano Musica, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Musikmonat Basel, and Ars Musica Brussels.

Lim has also worked extensively with members of the ELISION Ensemble since 1986.  The ensemble toured her opera, Moon Spirit Feasting, in six seasons of widely acclaimed performances at the 2000 Adelaide Festival, the 2001 Melbourne Festival, in 2002 at the Hebbel Theater Berlin, Zurich Theater Spektakel, and the Saitama Arts Centre and at the 2006 Brisbane Festival.  In collaboration with artist Domenico De Clario, Lim has created a series of site-specific installation pieces which are documented with photographs and recordings in the book/CD The Intertwining—The Chasm, published by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.  These projects each explored meditative states over all-night or week-long time-spans.  In 1999, she worked with artist Judith Wright on Sonorous Bodies, a video installation for the Queensland Art Gallery that toured to the Hebbel Theater Berlin in 2001. 

Lim earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, her Master of Music from Melbourne University, and her Bachelor of Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts.  She has studied composition with Richard Hames, Riccardo Formosa, and Ton de Leeuw.  She has been a guest lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer School, the University of California San Diego, Cornell University, Getty Research Institute, major Australian universities and at IRCAM Agora Festival.  She was a lecturer of composition at Melbourne University in 1991. Liza Lim is the guest curator for the twilight concert series of the 2006 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.

Liza Lim’s scores are published by BMG-Ricordi Milano & Ricordi London.  Recordings of her music have been released on HatArt (‘The Heart’s Ear’/ Ensemble fur neue musik Zurich), ABC-Classics (‘The Heart’s Ear’ Chamber Music/ ELISION and Ensemble Modern), Dischi Ricordi (‘Garden of Earthly Desire’ and ‘The Oresteia’/ ELISION), and Vox Australis.  

She has been awarded a DAAD Künstlerprogram Artists Residency to live and work in Berlin during 2007-08.

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