Judith Hamann

Judith Hamann is a performer and composer from Birraranga (Melbourne), one of ​‘Australia’s foremost contemporary-music cellists’ (RealTime Arts). Her current work focuses on ​an examination of ​‘shaking’ in her solo performance practice, the creation of new works for cello and humming, and ‘Materialities of Realisation’ (with Charles Curtis). Hamann has worked with artists and ensembles including Dennis Cooper, Áine O’Dwyer, Alvin Lucier, Eliane Radigue and La Monte Young. She has performed widely at festivals including the LA Phil Fluxus Festival and Aural in Mexico City. Hamann has also performed or composed music released on labels including Saltern, Pogus, Another Timbre, Caduc and Marginal Frequency and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from University of California, San Diego, where she majored in contemporary cello performance.


This project focuses on the creation of a new body of work drawn from performance and discourse based research into ‘shaking’. This manifests literally (in physical shaking of instruments and bodies), and sonically (through acoustic phenomena such as acoustical beating and wolftones). I will explore these ideas through a combination of performance, recording, and composition, with the bodily presence of the performer as sounding subject (as cellist, composer, or recordist) a way of navigating time, material, and environment. This project will result in a concert length performance work, and several shorter fixed media works adaptable to installation, recorded media, or performance environments.

Judith Hamann’s residency is realised with support from The Australia Council for the Arts.