Unbound

Artists

Ria Andriani is a musician, writer and advocate for disability and the arts. She has been involved with Backstage since 2022.
Ria writes by day and sings whenever she can. She has been involved for several years with Sydney Chamber Choir and has performed solo in Sydney and the UK. Ria is passionate about access for people with disability in all places, including on stage and online. Follow her on www.facebook.com/RiaAndrianiWriterAndMusician 

Sonnet Curé or Sweet Boy Sonnet, is a deaf electronic singer and producer based in Sydney/Eora, Australia. Sonnet is a performer first and foremost, and last year was a part of the ABC TV doco-series “Headliners”, on disability in the Australian Music scene. This led to working with You Am I, Killing Heidi, Double J and Triple J. Heavily inspired by the works of P J Harvey, Daft Punk and Ryan Trecartin, she expresses herself in many different artistic disciplines from Electronic Dance Music to experimental performance art. Sonnet brings an undeniable sense of fierceness and power to the stage, and pours her maximalist personality into every facet of her performance.

 Melanie Eden is an Autistic experimental vocalist-songwriter and accordionist with a trans-disciplinary practice. As a Buddhist practitioner, she strives for the complete ending of suffering. Her personal experience of violence, the impacts of, and dis/ability has resulted in strong advocacy and social engagement. Aligning with the Psychiatric Survivor Movement, Survivors of Clergy Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Child Sex Abuse. Her work can be situated in the field of Spiritual Ecology. Melanie has been a long-time dedicated member of Sydney's expansive electro-acoustic improvising group, 'The Splinter Orchestra'.

Oliver House is 36 years old and for most of his life has lived with his parents in West Pymble. Presently, he is transitioning to a share house in Forestville. When he was 3 years old, Oliver was diagnosed with a rare childhood disease which left him with several impairments, including ataxia (no balance). He uses a manual wheelchair to get about and his speech is a bit slurred. He leads a busy life which includes 2 days of work and 3 days of art, music, dance and drama. He loves to perform as part of creative teams. Since 2010, he has been participating in inclusive theatre and dance groups, such as Midnight Feast, Different Degrees, Beyond The Square and Dirty Feet Dance. With help from teachers at Midnight Feast, he has written a short play and made a short film. He enjoys going out and meeting people, but when he’s at home, he likes watching comedy, horror movies and professional wrestling on TV, while talking to friends on social media. He also likes to travel overseas to see his brother which can be challenging with a wheelchair.

After completing her Bachelor in 2019 majoring in Dance and Performance and minoring in Music and Anthropology, Zoe Morgan carried a curiosity and passion for the creativity, freedom, inclusivity and healing dance has to offer both its artists and viewers into her continued dance practice. Zoe is enthralled by dance’s ability to facilitate deeper connection, meaning and empowerment, with one’s self, others and their world through both personal and shared movement explorations and expression. Zoe was a part of the DirtyFeet family from 2019 to 2024, where she worked in administration, marketing, program management and access management. Zoe continues to work as an artist support in DirtyFeet's programs, The Right Foot and Emerging Makers, as well as in other Sydney based Arts Organisations and programs. Zoe undertook an audio description course in 2021 to broaden her inclusivity practice and is currently studying a graduate certificate in Creative Therapies and since then has provided services for an array of Arts Organisations, Galleries, Theatres, and Independent Artist productions.

Ensemble Offspring is Australia’s leading new music group, standing at the forefront of musical innovation. Led by internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes OAM, the ensemble unites the country’s most fearless and virtuosic instrumentalists with a core "pierrot plus one" line up of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion. Together, they create “visceral, joyous music” (Sydney Morning Herald) through kaleidoscopically varied performances that blaze a trail for Australian music.

Jim Denley’s work with wind instruments emphasizes eco-musicality, spontaneity, and co-creation with Place and Musickin (human and more-than-human). From 1989 to 2003 he worked with the text/music group Machine for Making Sense. He’s deeply involved with the Splinter Orchestra, an improvising ensemble defined by its radical inclusivity. In Weather Volume 1: The Hidden Valley (splitrec 31) documents his engagement with the Budawang Mountains, south of Nowra, With Weather Volume 2 Gadigal Country (splitrec 32) is intra-play with locations around Sydney Harbour. As Weather Volume 3: Budawang Mountains returns to Yuin Country, and was released 2024.

Alon Ilsar is a drummer, improviser, instrument designer and researcher. He is currently an Artistic Associate at Speak Percussion and an ARC Industry Fellow at Monash University’s SensiLab researching the uses of the AirSticks; a gestural instrument he invented, in the field of health and well being, making music creation more accessible to the broader community. Alon has played the AirSticks at Sydney Festival, Sydney’s Vivid Festival, on Triple J’s Like a Version and at NYC’s MET Museum, with projects such as Trigger Happy ‘Visualised’, The Hour, The Sticks, Tuka (from Thundamentals), Sandy Evans’ ‘Ahimsa’ and ‘Rockpool,’ Ellen Kirkwood’s ‘[A]part‘, Kirin J Callinan, Kind of Silence (UK), Cephalon (US), and Melinda Smith's 'Conduit Bodies' and Speak Percussion's Before Nightfall. He has played drums in Belvoir Theatre’s ‘Keating! the Musical,’ Sydney Theatre Company’s ‘Mojo,’ Meow Meow with the London Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Western Australia Symphony Orchestras, Stephanie Lake’s ‘Manifesto,’ Alan Cumming, Jake Shears and Eddie Perfect.