Liza Lim


Liza Lim is an Australian composer.
Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her interests in Asian ritual culture, the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.

Early life and education

Liza Lim was born in Perth, Western Australia, to Chinese parents. They were doctors who during her early years spent long periods working and studying in Brunei, and she was sent to boarding school. At the age of 11, she was encouraged by her teachers at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne to turn from piano and violin to composition. She has said that she "owes everything to them". Lim earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, her Master of Music from the University of Melbourne, and her Bachelor of Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has studied composition in Melbourne with Richard David Hames, Riccardo Formosa, and in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw.

Career

Lim has been a guest lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer School, the University of California, San Diego, Cornell University, Getty Research Institute, major Australian universities and at the IRCAM Agora Festival. She was a lecturer of composition at Melbourne University in 1991. Lim was the guest curator for the twilight concert series of the 2006 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Lim has been commissioned by some of the most eminent performers in the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Arditti String Quartet and the . Her work has featured at festivals such as, at the Berliner Festspiele, Venice Biennale, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and all the major Australian festivals.
Since 1986, Lim has worked extensively with members of the ELISION Ensemble; she is married to Daryl Buckley, its artistic director. In 2005, Lim was appointed the composer-in-residence with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for two years. Among other works, the orchestra commissioned—jointly with the radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk—her work The Compass; in its premiere performance on 23 August 2006 at the Sydney Opera House it was conducted by Alexander Briger, William Barton played the didgeridoo.
Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service, she spent one year in 2007/2008 as artist-in-residence in Berlin where she developed her third opera, The Navigator, inspired by Tristan and Isolde to a libretto by Patricia Sykes. She was appointed professor in composition at the University of Huddersfield in March 2008.
In March 2017 her appointment to the composition unit at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music was announced.

Selected works

Stage works

APRA Classical Music Awards

The APRA Classical Music Awards are presented annually by Australasian Performing Right Association and Australian Music Centre.