Associate ProfessorDamien Ricketson

Damien Ricketson is a composer and academic at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. His recent work explores vibration, the body, and modes of listening beyond what is heard by the ear.

Ricketson studied composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with renowned Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. He lived and worked in the Netherlands and Poland, completed IRCAM’s computer music course at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and was awarded a PhD from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2007.

In 1995, Ricketson co-founded Ensemble Offspring, a Sydney-based arts company dedicated to adventurous new music, serving as Co-Artistic Director until 2015. Much of his music written for Ensemble Offspring has received critical acclaim. His works have also been performed by leading soloists, ensembles, and orchestras nationally and internationally, including Sydney Chamber Opera, Speak Percussion, Sydney Symphony Fellows (Australia), MusikFabrik (Germany), Ensemble Plus Minus (UK/Belgium), Crash Ensemble (Ireland), 175 East and Stroma (New Zealand), the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Fellows, and many others.

Ricketson’s visceral work seeks to create music for the body rather than the brain. It is characterised by unusual instrumentations, open forms, and multisensory experiences that often integrate sound with other media. Many of his major works are full-length staged productions, including Sound Touch (2022), an immersive work exploring vibration and the body; The Howling Girls (2018), an experimental opera co-created with director Adena Jacobs exploring trauma and the voice; The Secret Noise (2014), a hybrid music-dance work; and Fractured Again (2010), a multimedia production featuring instruments made of glass.

Ricketson also has an ongoing collaboration with sound-studies scholar and artist Diana Chester on research exploring how we connect to our environment through sound. Supported by a Sydney Environment Institute Collaborative Fellowship, their work positions Earth as a collaborator in a dialogic exchange and has produced writings such as “Intertidal Conversations” in The World of Music (2025) and the audio essay “Listening With Earth” in Seismograf. Creatively, this research manifests in the sensory sound installation Listening to Earth (also known as Listen to a Starfish), exhibited in Singapore (2023), Sydney (2024), Glasgow (2024), Helsinki (2024), and Newcastle (2025). Other installations Ricketson has produced include the Aeolian Playgrounds series, featuring pipe sculptures played by the public using leaf-blowers.

Ricketson has received numerous awards, including the International Music Theatre Now Prize (2018), ‘Vocal/Choral Work of the Year’ (2019) for The Howling Girls, ‘Instrumental Work of the Year’ (2015) for The Secret Noise, the NSW State Award for ‘Best Composition by an Australian Composer’ (2008) for So We Begin Afresh, and the international Lady Panufnik Prize (Poland) for Chinese Whisper. His works have featured in major festivals, toured China, and represented Oceania at the Tokyo Festival. In 2016, his music was showcased in a profile concert in the ‘Australian Voices’ series presented by ANAM and the Melbourne Recital Centre.

As an educator, Ricketson is committed to authentic, project-based learning experiences. He has developed units such as Music Specialist Creative Projects and Composition Performer Workshop, fostering artistic agency through collaborative creation. He actively situates student work within the broader cultural fabric, initiating public-facing events including the New Creatives festival, Vivid New Music at the Con, and collaborations with institutions such as the Australian Museum and Kaldor Public Art Projects. Ricketson has also played a central role in facilitating the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Indigenous Artists-in-Residence program.