From the set of Play School to the mainstage at the Sydney Opera House, Claire Edwardes OAM is ‘the sorceress of percussion’ (City News, Canberra). The only Australian to win the ‘APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual’ three times, Claire leaps between her role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring (2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award winners) and concerto performances with all of the Australian and New Zealand orchestras plus numerous European orchestras.

Add her genre-spanning solo concerts, teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium, a broad spectrum of collaborations, premiering hundreds of new works by composers, to passionately advocating for equity in classical music through projects such as ‘Rhythms of Change’ and Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers and you begin to appreciate her astonishing energy.

Perhaps her most significant contribution, beyond her endless quest for excellence in performance, is in breaking down the barriers between art music and audiences, through her enthusiasm for bringing new music to unexpected places – including bowling clubs and old power stations. Recently described in The Age as a ‘prodigiously talented Australian…Edwardes’ is an invigorating musical life force’, Claire is a national treasure in the Australian art music scene.