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"Prodigiously talented Australian…Edwardes’ is an invigorating musical life force.” - The Age

“Percussionist Claire Edwardes embodied a whirl of female energy and expression…” - The West Australian

 

CLAIRE EDWARDES

Australian percussionist dedicated to the
performance and promotion of living new music

 

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I live and create, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. This land has been a place of culture and music making for over 60,000 years and we are very fortunate to make art and continue a living culture on it.

WATCH & LISTEN TO CLAIRE

 
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ABOUT CLAIRE

 

From the set of Play School to the mainstage of the Sydney Opera House, internationally acclaimed powerhouse Claire Edwardes is ‘the sorceress of percussion’ (Canberra City News). The only Australian to win the 'APRA Art Music Luminary Award’ four times and recently awarded an OAM for her services to Australian music, Claire leaps between her role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring and concerto performances with all of the Australian orchestras.

With her roots grounded in classical music (starting piano at age 5), Claire has focused her career as a percussionist on the music of our time. She is passionate about the wide dissemination of living new music to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Collaboration is at the heart of her musical practice, having worked with many of Australia’s leading and emerging composers and performers to expand the percussion and chamber music repertoire. She has had over 50 new works written for her as a soloist and Ensemble Offspring have commissioned over 300 new works throughout their 29 years in the industry.

Her latest project Rhythms of Change presents new solo percussion repertoire by Australian female composers written for high school and tertiary percussionists to bring better gender equity to student programming. Claire is the Australian Keychange Ambassador as well as the Donne Women in Music Ambassador and as such has a strong focus on gender equity in all that she does. For this work she was recognised in 2023 with the Australian Women in Music Creative Leadership Award. In recent years Claire has also had the opportunity to work closely with First Nations Composers through Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers with Ensemble Offspring and is a staunch facilitator of Australian First Nations musical voices.

Claire’s stellar career spans over 25 years of performing, commissioning, collaborating and championing new music both in Australia and Europe. She is the most recent percussionist to win the Young Performers Award back in 1999. She undertook a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 1994-1997 and rom 1999-2006 while resident in the Netherlands, she developed a successful international career as a percussion soloist and versatile chamber musician. While there she undertook a Masters of Music at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories, won the Tromp Percussion Competition (Eindhoven, 2000), Llangollen International Instrumentalist (Wales, 2001) and Concertgebouw Vriendenkrans Prize (Amsterdam, 2001). She also founded her percussion group Duo Vertigo and collaborated regularly with new music legends Ictus Ensemble, Slagwerk Den Haag as well as pianists Nicolas Hodges and Tomoko Mukaiyama and composers Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Unsuk Chin.

Under Claire's leadership (Artistic Director and CEO), her group Ensemble Offspring is now one of Australia’s most significant commissioners and exponents of new music and in recognition they were awarded a prestigious 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Group Award. As a soloist and with Ensemble Offspring, Claire has performed at international festivals from Mona Foma Festival (Tasmania) and Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht) to Music on Main (Vancouver) and Shanghai New Music Week (China). Claire is endorsed by Adams Percussion and Vic Firth and is a member of the percussion department at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. (450 words)

Please visit Repertoire Lists for a comprehensive list and audio and video links to the over 50 new works written in collaboration with Claire. Also check out this Australian percussion solo list recently collated for the Australian Music Centre, plus this important new list of percussion solo works by female composers.

 

ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING

My big passion is the group I artistic direct, Ensemble Offspring. We have been around for 30 years in 2025 and I am very proud of all that we have achieved in that time, changing and developing the new music landscape in Australia over that period. I am indebted to my colleagues and I urge you to sign up to our newsletter so you can come along to some of our awesome concerts. ensembleoffspring.com

At one concert I witness the audience clap enthusiastically for Mozart but give a standing ovation for percussionist Claire Edwardes’s powerhouse performance of Flash by Matthew Hindson. That reaction gives lie to the cliché about classical audiences being old and, by extension, conservative.”
— NZ Herald, August 2016
 

RELEASES

Rhythms of Change (MOVE)

Rhythms of Change (MOVE) 2021

Claire & Friends - Kammerbox

Claire & Friends - Kammerbox 2016

Claire Edwardes - Clairaudient

Claire Edwardes - Clairaudient 2017

Claire Edwardes - Coil

Claire Edwardes - Coil 2006

Claire Edwardes - ONE

Claire Edwardes - ONE 2013

Claire Edwardes - Flash

Claire Edwardes - Flash 2011

Duo Vertigo - Vertigo One

Duo Vertigo - Vertigo One 2006

Claire Edwardes & Nicolas Hodges - The Axe Manual

Claire Edwardes & Nicolas Hodges - The Axe Manual 2004

 

MY PROJECTS

Rhythms of Change

Rhythms of Change

Forces of Nature

Harp & Marimba Duo

My Compositions

RECITAL Percussion and Dance

RECITAL Percussion & Dance

 Ensemble Offspring 

 Ensemble Offspring 

MY GALLERY

Photo by Nat Cartney

Photo by Monty Coles

Photo by Nat Cartney

Photo by Nat Cartney

Photo by Nat Cartney

Photo by Jordan Adams

Photo by Jordan Adams

Photo by Monty Coles

Photo by Monty Coles

Photo by Heidrun Lohr

Photo by Jordan Adams

Photo by Monty Coles

Photo by Nat Cartney

Photo by Thijs Roozenbaum

Photo by Jordan Adams

 
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Claire is a Vic Firth Artist - her signature series mallets can be purchased here. Claire is an Adams Artist.
Claire is on the percussion staff at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is the Australian Keychange Ambassador and a Donne - Women in Music Ambassador.

CONTACT CLAIRE & SIGN UP TO HER NEWSLETTER HERE!