Vanessa Tomlinson

Percussion

photo credit: Matthew Stanton

Australian percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson has produced significant work in the areas of solo percussion, contemporary chamber music, improvisation and composition. She has travelled the world since 1992 performing with red fish blue fish, The Australian Art Orchestra, Intergalatic Contemporary Ensemble, Elision, Clocked Out Duo, Circa, Twitch, the Golden Orb, in places as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, The Casbah and Nudgee Beach. Central to Vanessa’s work is collaboration; principally with musicians, circus performers, visual artists and dancers. She is dedicated to producing new musical works and has commissioned and premiered more than 50 composers to write solo and chamber works including Erik Griswold, Anthony Pateras, and Vinko Globokar.

Vanessa is co-director of Clocked Out, an award winning musical production company exploring new sonic worlds, including a focus on environmental sound (Sounding the Condamine, Sounding Wivenhoe), Chinese music (The Wide Alley/Old Chengdu), prepared piano and percussion (Clocked Out Duo/Foreign Objects), improvisation (Clocked Out with David Chesworth) and Contemporary Chamber Music (All Vinko, A Message from Sirius, Goodbye Elvis). In 2011 Clocked Out will embark on a new venue making music for Radio Plays as part of the Queensland Music Festival.

Vanessa studied at University of Adelaide, Hochschule fur musik in Freiburg and University of California, San Diego (with Steven Schick and George Lewis) where she received her DMA in 2000. She has also spend extensive time studying Sichuan Opera Percussion in Chengdu China with Mr. Zhong. She has recorded for Innova, Etcetera, Mode Records, Tzadik, Clocked Out, and ABC Classics.

In addition to her international performance, producing and composing activities, Vanessa has also received residencies from Asialink Foundation (Sichuan), Civatelli Ranieri Foundation (Italy) Banff (Canada) and Bundanon National Trust (NSW).

Vanessa currently lives in Brisbane where she is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University and director of Ba Da Boom Percussion.

You can visit Vanessa’s website at www.clockedoutproductions.com