Composition and performance have played an equal role in forming my raison d’être, and contemporary saxophone techniques have become an integral part of my compositional style.

Katia Beaugeais. Photo © Bridget Elliot

My aim as a composer-performer is to showcase unique playing effects in atmospheric sound worlds. Extended techniques transport the performer and audience to another place. When I circular breathe I forget where I am, as I am completely immersed within the sounds of my saxophone.

Since winning the 2010 ISCM International Young Composer Award for my solo soprano saxophone piece, Sound Box, I have continued to explore contemporary playing effects when writing for saxophone and other instruments, such as First Light at Uluru for wind symphony, recorded by didgeridoo virtuoso, William Barton, and the Royal Australian Navy Band for its 2018 CD Spirit of Place.

My passion is to collaborate with other composers and show how contemporary playing effects can be used in delicate, lyrical and technically virtuosic ways, rather than in a modernistic style commonly associated with avant-garde repertoire. This is showcased in an ABC Classic podcast featuring new Australian saxophone music where I am featured as soloist-composer performing my latest...