Head, School of Music & Drama
Julian Knowles is a composer and performer, specialising in new and emerging technologies. His creative work spans the fields of composition for theatre, dance, film and television, electronic music, sound and new media arts, popular music and record production. Since the mid 1980s, he has established himself as a leading artist in the area of electronic and new music, achieving significant critical praise and international recognition for his performances and recordings.
His creative work is published and available internationally via a variety of a number of record labels and has received numerous reviews in both the national and international press. In the course of his career Julian has received three awards and nominations at international festivals for his work in the area of screen music and sound design. His work receives frequent broadcasts internationally and he has been invited to perform live to air for ABC Radio, BBC Radio and many other specialist radio programs. He has been a frequent recipient of competitive grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including composer commissions, residencies, development, performance, international touring, and innovative projects grants.
As a composer, Julian’s work is represented in various curated online databases such as the Australian Sound Design Project, the UNESCO Digi-Arts Knowledge Portal and the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University. In recent years, Julian’s music and audio/visual work has been presented at venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Experimental Intermedia in New York City, the Seoul International Performance Art Festival, What is Music?, the Sydney Biennale, Melbourne International Film Festival and the Sydney Opera House.
Julian also has an extensive background in the contemporary popular music area, having been involved in the Australian independent music scene from the 1980s onwards. During this period, he was a member of Australian bands Shrinking Violets and Even As We Speak, with the latter band achieving significant chart success in the UK following radio sessions with the prominent British DJ, John Peel. Most recently, Julian worked with the band Big Heavy Stuff on the ARIA nominated album ‘Size of the Ocean’.
In addition to his ongoing work as a composer and performer, he spent a period working with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a Sound Designer and Editor, during which time his soundtracks were nominated for several awards.
Prior to his current position as Head of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Wollongong, Julian was Head of the School of Contemporary Arts at the University of Western Sydney. Julian is frequently employed as a consultant to various arts organizations and institutions and his current professional appointments include membership of the Sydney Olympic Park Arts Advisory Panel and the Board of the Australlian Network for Art and Technology. In 2004 he was appointed by the Minister for Arts and Sport to the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, the federal government’s arts funding and advisory body.
Email: julian_knowles@uow.edu.au |
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