Born in 1975 in Sydney, Claire Edwardes graduated as Student of the Year in 1997 from the Sydney Conservatorium, where her teachers were Richard Miller and Daryl Pratt. Only two years later she won the ABC Young Performers Award and moved to the Netherlands to attend the Amsterdam and Rotterdam Conservatories, studying with Peter Prommel, Jan Pustjens and Richard Jansen.
She undertook summer schools and master classes with Kroumata Percussion and Steven Schick, and, with her percussion group Duo Vertigo, attended the Banff Centre for the Arts. She stayed in the Netherlands for seven years and received many international awards and prizes, coming in first at the Tromp Percussion Competition in 2000 and Llangollen International Instrumentalist in 2001. In 2005 she was named the MCA/Freedman Fellow.
Since 2000 Claire Edwardes has regularly been performing with all of the Australian orchestras as well as many European and New Zealand orchestras, gaining herself a reputation as Australia’s leading percussion concerto soloist. She has specialised herself in the marimba, and she performs concertos, chamber and solo recitals on the full gamut of percussion instruments.
Claire Edwardes is a three-time recipient of the APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual (in 20017, 2012 and 2016), as well as the 2016 APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Organization for her Sydney-based group Ensemble Offspring, of which she is a co-artistic director.
Ensemble Offspring has become one of Australia’s most significant commissioners and exponents of new music under her leadership, performing the most innovative and cutting-edge music. They have been featured in various major international festivals, including King’s Place in London, Sydney Festival and Shanghai New Music.
Claire Edwardes works with experienced as well as younger composers in developing the percussion repertoire. She teaches Percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is strongly committed to the education and the advancement of new music and to the commissioning of new works for percussion.
She undertook summer schools and master classes with Kroumata Percussion and Steven Schick, and, with her percussion group Duo Vertigo, attended the Banff Centre for the Arts. She stayed in the Netherlands for seven years and received many international awards and prizes, coming in first at the Tromp Percussion Competition in 2000 and Llangollen International Instrumentalist in 2001. In 2005 she was named the MCA/Freedman Fellow.
Since 2000 Claire Edwardes has regularly been performing with all of the Australian orchestras as well as many European and New Zealand orchestras, gaining herself a reputation as Australia’s leading percussion concerto soloist. She has specialised herself in the marimba, and she performs concertos, chamber and solo recitals on the full gamut of percussion instruments.
Claire Edwardes is a three-time recipient of the APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual (in 20017, 2012 and 2016), as well as the 2016 APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Organization for her Sydney-based group Ensemble Offspring, of which she is a co-artistic director.
Ensemble Offspring has become one of Australia’s most significant commissioners and exponents of new music under her leadership, performing the most innovative and cutting-edge music. They have been featured in various major international festivals, including King’s Place in London, Sydney Festival and Shanghai New Music.
Claire Edwardes works with experienced as well as younger composers in developing the percussion repertoire. She teaches Percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is strongly committed to the education and the advancement of new music and to the commissioning of new works for percussion.