TEACHERS
Secondary School: Faye Lake (piano),
Linda Vogt (flute), Jess Ciampa (percussion)
Undergraduate: Daryl Pratt (percussion), Richard Miller (timpani), Ian
Cleworth (snare drum)
Postgraduate: Richard Jansons, Hans Leenders, Peter Prommel, Nick Woud,
Jan Pustjens
Courses/Masterclasses: Steve Schick, Kroumata, Kevin Hathway, Leigh
Howard
Stevens, Michael Burritt
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2009 Gitimalya
Marimba Concerto by Toru Takemitsu, Sydney Symphony, Sydney Opera House
2007 Soundscapes
composed and conducted by Richard Mills, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,
Melbourne Town Hall
2003
Harrison Birtwistle’s The Axe Manual
recorded
on the Metronome Label (***** BBC Music Magazine)
with
Nicolas Hodges + performance at the 2004 Birtwistle Festival (Queen
Elizabeth Hall,
London)
2003
Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto
conducted
by Peter Eötvös, Radio Chamber Orchestra,
Grote Zaal
Concertgebouw
(Amsterdam)
2001
James MacMillan’s
Veni Veni Emmanuel
conducted by James MacMillan,
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
1999 Young Performer of the Year Schwantner Percussion Concerto,
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Stenz
PRIZES & DEGREES
2007
AMC/APRA
Classical Music Awards
Award
for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual (for Duo Vertigo the Duyfken
Project)
2005
MCA/Freedman
Fellowship for
Classical Music (Australia)
2005
Third Prize: DUO VERTIGO
Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition (The
Netherlands)
2003
Master of Music (Honours): Amsterdam Conservatorium of Music (The
Netherlands
)
2001
First Prize: Llangollen International Instrumentalist (Wales,
UK)
2000
First Prize: Tromp Percussion Competition (The Netherlands)
1999
Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year (Australia)
1997
Student of the Year
(BMusHon1): Sydney
Conservatorium of Music (Australia)
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
2008 Arias with Gabriells Cilmi
2007 Spicks & Specks, ABC
2003 MTV, Holland with Duo Vertigo
2002 Grachten Festival, Amsterdam
2002 BBC Wales, performing Rebonds by Xenakis
1999 Young Performers Award, ABC/Symphony Australia
OFFICIAL
BIOGRAPHY (October 2009)
Claire Edwardes is
an internationally renowned percussionist at the forefront of her field. She graduated as Student of
the Year from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (where her teachers were Daryl
Pratt and Richard Miller) and subsequently gained a Masters of Music at the
Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatoriums under
Peter Prommel and Jan Pustjens. She also undertook specialist study with Steve
Schick, Andreas Boettger, Chris Lamb and Kroumata Percussion Ensemble.
In Europe Claire performed as soloist with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London
Sinfonietta and the Radio Chamber Orchestra and was a regular guest performer
with Percussion Group the Hague and the Asko/Shönberg Ensemble. Her percussion
duo, Duo Vertigo performed throughout the UK, Sweden, Belgium and Germany and
was the leading ensemble of its kind on the Dutch music scene for many years.
On returning to Sydney in 2006, Claire became the co-artistic director of
Ensemble Offspring. Maintaining an energetic performing career throughout Australia and Europe,
she values her collaborations with such artists as Bernadette Balkus, William
Barton and Natsuko Yoshimoto. Claire has performed with all of the Australian
orchestras and in 2009, was featured soloist with the Sydney Symphony, Sydney
Youth Orchestra, TOPS and Kammerklang Ensemble.
Claire was 1999 ABC Young Performer of the Year, 2001 Tromp Percussion
Competition winner (Holland), 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist
(UK), 2003 Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition prize winner, 2005
Freedman Fellow and 2007 AMC/APRA Outstanding Contributor to Australian Music.
She has been a featured soloist numerous times at the Huddersfield Festival of
Contemporary Music (UK), Grachten Festival (Amsterdam), Australian Festival of Chamber Music
and Canberra Festival of Chamber Music.
Claire has more than one hundred world premieres to her name including an
eclectic array of solo works by such composers as Ross Edwards, Harrison
Birtwistle, Laurence Crane, Damien Ricketson, Matthew Hindson and Elena Kats-Chernin. Equally at home performing
at the
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam as the Sydney Opera House, Claire is a passionate chamber musician
and recitalist committed to the advancement of innovative new music through the
medium of percussion.
Claire Edwardes
Percussion 
