RESUME - JOSEPHINE (JO) TRUMAN
Multi-media Artist working in music, sound and visuals. Professional freelance Radiophonic feature maker and sound artist. Weblink:- https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/truman-josephine
Academic Qualifications:- BA (Communications) UTS (majors: Writing and Sound)
Masters of Music (MMus) Sydney Conservatorium of Music (University of Sydney) (Composition. Results:- 92% High Distinction).
Current: Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA): Western Sydney University
Dip Fine Arts at Alexander Mackey College of Fine Arts (unfinished degree).
Guest student, Koninklijk Conservatorium of Music, Den Haag.
Grants and Awards:- Australia Council for the Arts Grant - Individuals and Groups:- 2022/23. For the production and realisation of Traversing the Void with the Kanimbla Quartet in the Blue Mts and Canberra. Role librettist/producer/performer/visual artist.: Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust Fund Grant ‘22/23 to present and perform a collaborative new chamber opera, Traversing the Void, by Icelandic composer Hildigunnur Runarsdottir and Josephine Truman (librettist/producer/artistic director/performer ) in the Blue Mts in March 2023: 2014: Australia Council for the Arts: Grants For Individuals and Groups-writing libretto for Traversing the Void,1991-92: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stipend, Stuttgart, Germany- one year residency; INTERNATIONAL STUDY GRANT, Australia Council (Music)- voice SPECIAL PURPOSE AWARD, Australian Music Board, Australia Council of the Arts to spend one year in the Northern Territory of Australia.
2025:-April/May: Exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints at The Cottage Gallery, Brooklyn, NSW (in collaboration with Kristin Erling (scuplture) 2024/25: Private piano teaching. 11/03/2023: Blue Mountains Theatre: Presentation of Traversing the Void a new contemporary chamber opera written by Josephine Truman (libretto) and Hildigunnur Runarsdottir (music) for chamber quartet and solo voice. Production and Artistic Direction: Josephine Truman. Support: The Marais Project.
17/03/2023: Wesley Music Centre, Canberra. Traversing the Void. Support: SCUNA choir.Review: https://citynews.com.au/2023/compelling-music-of-fires-and-fear/
2023:- Teach piano and singing at Abbey St Music Studios in Leura.
2022:- February:- Guest artist for Articulate Project Space 10th anniversary, Leichhardt. Project involved large “memory map” of drawings, a sound installation in collaboration with Andrew Milne, and performance with John Shand and Andrew Milne 12/02/2201/3: Traversing the Void - world premiere. New chamber work collaboration Hildigunnur Runnarsdottir (music/Josephine Truman (libretto) at the Kammermusikklubburin #2, Reyjkavic, Iceland https://www.harpa.is/dagskra/vidburdur/kammermusikklubburinn-3-4/?fbclid=IwAR3Wh75YcZMMCXER1pX_JeB-Fu3ZV4mNQmsJEjWWmjj9m7vgfOWPklSIfMUFeatured on “Menningin” Arts program, RUV:-: https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/02/glaeny-kammeropera-innblasin-af-astrolskum-skogareldum?fbclid=IwAR0cBVXSPVDINXV74RLWiEWBSXNH5Ba0JcEIZADhdIngm6kGoRlboxJ1O6o#
20/3: ‘Fragile Ids’ (Jo Truman/John Shand/Andy Milne,Tim Cunningham) new improvised music @ ‘The Avalon” Katoomba, for the “Afternoon Delights series.Everglades solo show: 10/4: Solo exhibition opening of drawings and paintings @ The Everglades Gallery, Leura. Theme: response to the cultivated and wild gardens of Everglades National Trust Gardens.
1/11:: Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival support act for Elysian Fields- solo program voice and piano improvisation. Review: https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/elysian-fields-sydney-international-womens-jazz-festival/
The Water Babies Opera for Children and Adults composed by Freddie Hill:-Producer and Artistic Director, storyboard illustrator and performer for staged by Tomanelli. Inc. Performances include:- *June 18, 2016: -Workshop concert at The Seymour Centre (see review: http://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/the-water-babies-the-seymour-centre/) *November 2016: Pop-up concert: Blue Mts Cultural Centre *March 4 & 5, 2017: Kindlehill Performance Space, Kindlehill involving children from the school and surrounding areas and community contribution and participation; ACA Theatre 20 & 21 September 2019. 2018: Voice tutor (group and individual) for BMus students at WSU. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewaterbabies/Recent work selected for WSU/NSW Create “Make Music Day”, solitudes for voice, electronics and bagpipe. weblink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=463&v=clyd6mVKoVA&feature=emb_logo&fbclid=IwAR3SpjjzZSqyyskFuZNtlWBLwQrWAayeTVYWoc9UK6H16VJP8vsvCP7htn02014-2016:- Tutor Goulburn Regional Conservatorium. Teach at Taralga Public School as part of GRC outreach music program. (finished position due to relocation back to Blue Mts). *Australia Council Grant for New Work, Australia Council (Music) Collaborative project with Icelandic composer Hildigunnur Runnarsdottir to compose a kammer opera, for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin (1 & II) Viola and Cello and Mezzo Soprano and electronic media. Role: librettist. This work was shortlisted to represented Iceland for the Beijing World Music Days, 2019.)
2013: *MONA FOMA (Museum of Old and New Art) , Hobart. Commission:- two commissioned works of performances involving structured vocal improvisations: Princes Wharf (18/th) and The St Mary’s Cathedral Centre, Hobart (19th3) and a well attended vocal workshop at the Baha’i Centre, Hobart. Weblink: (recording of live performance by the ABC (shorter version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CHq-HlfhbU
*Gigaanuum Dawn Chorus. “Forever Now” Gold Record Launch (Aphids Productions) with my vocal composition in collaboration with Thomas Knox Arnold. Casual Piano and Voice tutoring at Waratah School of Music, Katoomba.
Artist in Residence with Wollombi Valley Cultural Centre. 10th/03/2013.. Exhibition of paintings and drawings and sound installation. Old Fire Shed Gallery, Wollombi. Exhibition 25/01/2013
2010 -2019:- *Casual Tutor: University of Technology, Sydney Community College, Nepean Community College. Teaching Botanical Drawing,
2005:- Sound and Vision Residency, Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada. Performance and creation of sound work Banff Dreaming
Grants and Awards:-
SPECIAL PURPOSE AWARD, Australian Music Board, Australia Council of the Arts to spend one year in the Northern Territory of Australia. Primary focus: Community of Barunga.
INTERNATIONAL STUDY GRANT, Australia Council (Music) To study vocal improvisation and its application in New Music. Live and research in London (UK) and Amsterdam, Holland. Perform at various venues and festivals across Europe. Perform at various venues and festivals across Europe including Strasbourg Musica Fest.; Le Mann jazz Fest (Songs From A Prison Diary project); First International Jazz Festival, Vilnius w. Vladimir Tchekassin and Vladimir Tarasov; Heineken Jazz fest; LMC Fest; Fiets Fest (w Tony Buck; Wie es Ihr Gefhalt fest; Bimhuis, Ijsbrekker Tour of DDR with Jon Rose and Joe Sachs.
Guest student at Koninklijk Conservatorium, den Haag, Holland.
1993-95: Awarded Artists live in stipend at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany. One of ten selected from world wide pool applicants. Major work as outcome of residency wrote, composed, performed and directed- A Bite In Time – Multi-media music/sound/visual art work exploring food, eating and related history and culture and three architectural spaces of the Schloss. Involvement of 28 artists and musicians.
Commission:- CD “Sdreamings” (Staalplaat records).
2004; (March) Awarded PRSS (post graduate research support scheme) grant by Conservatorium of Music Sydney to travel to New York to undertake research and participate in the Experimental Intermedia Festival. Conduct thesis research on extended vocal techniques (interview singers Meredith Monk and Joan le Barbara). . This research formed the basis of the mini-series Extreme Throats I wrote and co-produced for ABC Classic FM.
Professional Radiophonic commissions
Work as freelance radio feature conceptualiser, creator and producer. These programs include audio arts productions incorporating my original music, text and script writing, , documentaries and travelogues.
SDREAMINGS:- WDR Koln (Audioakustisches Kunst) - Audio Arts Horspiel (60’) (Role: writer, singer/ composer/performer).
CELL SONGS;- ABC Classic FM (The Listening Room) - Audio Arts Three perspectives on Australian history in sound, text, interviews and music. (Role: Script writer, research, singer/composer/performer, interviewer, on site recorder, co- producer). (This work was bought and translated into German by SWF, Baden Baden, Germany).
THE HOUSE IN THE SKY:- ABC Classic FM (The Listening Room) - Poetry Prose, original music Audio Arts(58’). An exploration of family life through a suite of my poetry and prose set with my music (and collaborations with other musicians). (Role: Script writer, singer/composer/performer, co- producer).
TRANSPARENT MESSENGER:- ABC Radio National (“The Europeans”) - Documentary/audio arts: (40’) A profile on the Plasy International Artists symposium located in a 12C Cistercian Monastery in Plasy, the Czech Republic. (Role: Researcher, Script writer, interviewer, on site recorder, co-producer).
THE MIRRORED CRY:- ABC Classic FM (The Listening Room) T Audio Arts: (45’). On vocal mimicry. (Role: Script writer, singer/composer, interviewer, co- producer).
DEPREM:- ABC Radio National (Radio Eye):- Documentary/ audio arts: (50’), Documentary. A travelogue in sound, writings and interviews made in Turkey during my travels there in the wake of the devastating earthquakes in 1999. (Role: Researcher, Script writer, interviewer and on site recorder, co-producer).
EXTREME THROATS:- ABC Classic FM (mini-series) . (’05) Documentary Five part mini-series written on Extended Vocal techniques and their practitioners. Based on MMus research. (Role: Researcher, Script writer, singer/ interviewer, co-producer).
BRIDGE TO OTHERNESS:- Westdeutscher Rundfunk (Audio Akustisches Kunst): Audio Arts -Contemporary Horspiel This work is based on a notion of how we navigate “Self/Otherness/Place”. It focuses on the region of the Blue Mountains where I live, and explores attitudes and voices of “Others” including the socially marginalised living and working here, and the “Otherness” of “wilderness” surrounding the suburbia clustered along the corridor from the Lower to Upper Blue Mountains. This corridor we take for granted, but as 2013 is the bi-centenary of the crossing of the Blue Mts by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth, many of us are reflecting on the impact of this crossing on the lives of the Gundungurra and Darug peoples who inhabit this region, and the ecology of the Blue Mountains. (Role: Script writer, recorder, interviewer, singer/composer, producer ).
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCARS 1)The Shadows of Hands 2) Relocating Self:- ABC Radio National: EarDrops: Sonic Boundaries Audio Arts- two 6 min works:-
