Heather Shannon
After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor in Classical
Piano Performance, Heather became best known for her work as one quarter of
internationally renowned independent rock band, The Jezabels. The band has sold over
300,000 records worldwide, won an ARIA award and the Australian Music Prize. Shannon
has spent most the past decade writing and recording award winning albums and performing
in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, The O2 Arena (London), Webster Hall (New
York) and at festivals such as Glastonbury (UK) and Lollapalooza (USA).
As a composer, Heather has received commissions from the Australian Chamber Orchestra
(2019), the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (2018) and The Metropolitan Orchestra
(2017). In 2021 she released a solo piano album titled Midnight Sun which was described
by Guardian Australia as a “collision of perfection and punk” and was written whilst
partaking in ArtsIceland, an artist residency in the Wesfjords of Iceland. Other composition
experiences includes writing the score for two independent Australian Films ‘Book
Week’ (2018) and ‘Broke’ (2016).
Heather’s composition practice attempts to reconcile the differing classical and
contemporary musical worlds she operates in. She has recently finished a Master in
Composition (research) at the Sydney Conservatorium on the topic of the Australian Gothic
which deals with themes of the uncanny, dislocation, romance, melancholy and haunting.
This area has spurned a new solo body of work which includes Strange Roses for Orchestra
and Synthesiser, a work that explores the cultural ghosts of classical music traditions and
their meanings through uncanny musical forms.
Heather currently teaches contemporary music students at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music and TAFE NSW