about

Elizabeth Jigalin is a composer and performer based in Sydney, Australia. Elizabeth’s approach to music is imaginative, playful and collaborative.

Elizabeth’s music has been premiered at festivals around the world including Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Extended Play, Darmstadt, BIFEM, Rouse Hills Psychedelia, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Women of Noise and Australia’s Silent Film Festival. At present, she is Composer-in-Residence for Voices of Women and Moorambilla Voices. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Sydney Youth Orchestras, Bundanon Trust, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Bondi Pavillion. Previously, her music and ideas have been brought to life by a variety of performers and commissioners including Biennale of Sydney, Inner West Voices, Vanessa Tomlinson, Will Hansen, Jane Aubourg, Ensemble Offspring, Soundstream, Screen Dive, Lost in Books and FBI’s All the Best.

Elizabeth is the founder of creative music collective the music box project who were awarded Excellence for Experimental Music at the 2020 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards for shallow listening - a project premiered at BIFEM that featured her music theatre work prelude & pickle (2019). The group have premiered over 40 works by early career composers. In 2024, Elizabeth was the co-festival director of the music box project’s inaugural festival CUT PASTE PLAY - featuring over 25 artists from across Australia and abroad.

Elizabeth is grateful to be the recipient of several awards including 2023 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund, Ars Musica Australis Scholarship, AAO Mentorship, 1st Prize Centenary of Canberra Composition Competition and 1st Prize Unbound Flute Festival competition. In 2022, Elizabeth was a finalist in the APRA Professional Development awards.

Elizabeth studied with Damien Ricketson  (with whom she has played with in a spooky theremin/saw duo) and Damian Barbeler at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a recipient of the Ted & Susan Meller Scholarship and Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize.

From 2016-2020, Elizabeth co-curated Backstage Music and in 2020, Elizabeth was part of the artistic team for Hibernation Festival of the Lo-fi where she presented a weekly breakfast sound show ‘Sound on Toast’. She also makes music with guitarist Danica Hobden as ‘dnka+zil’ and previously in the band ‘nou’.

Elizabeth also enjoys teaching composition, encouraging students to think creatively about music. She has taught composition privately and at schools across Sydney, presented composition workshops for Sydney Youth Orchestra, NSW Department of Education and as part of Sydney Symphony’s “Tuned Up!” teacher training program and tutored at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2022, in collaboration with music educator Laura Andrew and Cobar High School, Elizabeth facilitated Sounds & Stories an education program that saw students collaboratively compose a sound installation that incorporated aural histories, sound design and original music. For this project, Elizabeth and Laura were awarded the 2023 APRA/AMCOS Art Music award for Excellence in Music Education.

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