In 2021, Perth-based composer Olivia Davies was announced as the next Composer in Residence (and the first woman in the position) at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, a three-year residency scheduled to commence in 2022. To frequent WASO patrons and Perth music-lovers, this appointment was delightful if anticipated; the 2021 world premiere of Davies’ work Stratus was incredibly well received, with critics praising the textural soundscape and sophisticated use of orchestral forces.
Olivia Davies. Photo © Alexandra Cohen.
Even WASO’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch weighed in: “[Davies] is very unique, and she is not giving in to pressures of the trend of the times – she stays her own route, and I think that she will go very far. It’s great that we can give her a platform where she can hear her works performed.”
To Davies, such praise is both worthy and loaded. “It’s a huge compliment to have someone say you have a really unique voice, or you don’t necessarily sound like anyone else, and to have your music recognised for that,” she explains, “but I still think I’m finding...
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