Curious Noise
Music by Damien Ricketson
About Damien
Damien Ricketson is a composer and academic at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. He is the founder and former Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring, an arts company dedicated to adventurous new music, and has served as Program Leader of Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Ricketson’s major works include the sensory sound installation Listening to Earth (2024), the immersive experience Sound Touch (2022), the experimental opera The Howling Girls (2018), and the hybrid music-dance production The Secret Noise (2014). His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the International Music Theatre Now Prize and ‘Work of the Year’ in both vocal and instrumental categories at the Australian Art Music Awards (2015 & 2019). In 2019 he represented Oceania at the Tokyo World Festival.
Recent projects explore vibration, the body, and modes of listening that extend beyond what is heard by the ear.
Visit the Australian Music Centre for artist profile, scores, collaborators and more.
Visit the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney for extended biography and academic work.
Media & acclaim
"Ricketson’s music is wild and imaginative."
"A really pleasurable kind of strange."
"I left the show covered in a light layer of sweat and a pain in my side. I still have the pain a week later, powerful stuff."
"I was suspended in that moment between being given an anaesthetic and falling asleep."
"One of the strangest and intriguing sonic and visceral experiences."
"Made me feel terrified, disconcerted and glad to be alive."
The works
Selected projects
Listening to Earth
A sensory sound installation co-created with Diana Chester
Sound Touch
A multi-sensory show exploring vibration and the body
The Secret Noise
Hybrid music-dance work created with Ensemble Offspring. Directed by Carlos Gomes.
Hectic Resonance
Music for physically distant performers
The Howling Girls
Opera co-created with director Adena Jacobs and premiered by Sydney Chamber Opera and Carriageworks (2018)
Scores & Audio
Organisations
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
I am an academic at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. Check out our extensive program of new music research and events.
Ensemble Offspring
From 1995 to 2015 I was the Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Now one of Australia's leading arts companies, check out their adventurous programs.
Look & listen
Look
Hectic Jacaranda performed by Vladimir Gorbach (guitar) and Lulu Liu (pipa)
Castles Made of Sand performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows (conducted by Roger Benedict)
Listen
Listen more
Galleries
Fractured Again – photos by Jamie Williams
The Secret Noise – photos by Heidrun Lohr
