Jack Symonds : Represented Artist
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Photo: Daniel Boud
Email:
Artist website: https://jacksymonds.com/
Jack Symonds (b. 1988, Sydney) is a composer, conductor and pianist, and Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London under Kenneth Hesketh and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal. His stage works represent "a striking and impressive new operatic voice" (The Sydney Morning Herald) and he is "one of those performers who seemingly can play anything" (Australian Book Review).
He has led performances in and/or composed for the Holland, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide Festivals, Dark MOFO, Sydney Opera House, Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks, Melbourne Recital Centre, National Gallery of Australia, Opera Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, The Song Company, Victorian Opera, Adelaide & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, ANAM, JACK Quartet (US), Phoenix Central Park, BIFEM, Australia Piano Quartet & Streeton Trio.
His opera Gilgamesh (Opera Australia/ Sydney Chamber Opera/ Australian String Quartet/ Ensemble Offspring/ Carriageworks) won Dramatic Work of the Year and Performance of the Year at the 2025 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards and Symonds received the NSW Luminary Award for his work in contemporary Australian opera. He has written extensively for the voice in a variety of stage and chamber music settings, including The Shape of the Earth after Patrick White's Voss, Climbing Toward Midnight, a chamber opera re-imagining the second act of Wagner's Parsifal and the Dostoevsky opera Notes from Underground (2011, restaged at Carriageworks in 2016).
He specialises in the performance of new and recent music, including conducting and playing major stage works by Benjamin, Dusapin, Kurtág, Saariaho, Maxwell Davies, Kancheli & Rihm, often as part of their Australian premieres. He has also conducted the operatic world premieres of Gyger's Fly Away Peter & Oscar and Lucinda, Finsterer's Antarctica (with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) & Biographica, Muhly's Aphrodite, Ricketson's The Howling Girls and Smetanin's Mayakovsky.
His recent performances have shown "masterly musicianship, projecting an engrossingly cogent understanding of complexities and expressive purpose" (The Sydney Morning Herald), the ability to "draw an emotional throughline so clear that every unexpected melodic or dynamic turn feels comfortable and logical" (Timeout), and is "impressive as ever at the piano, creating a vital palette of carefully gradated tone colours." (Backtrack).
Jack Symonds — current to February 2026
Studied with
Damien Ricketson (2008 - 2009)
Michael Smetanin (2009 - 2010)
Kenneth Hesketh (2011 - 2012)
Influenced by
Awards & Prizes
| Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Chamber Music | Finalist | String Quartet No. 2 |
Selected Commissions
| Work | Commission Details | |
|---|---|---|
| I keep your burning glances : for baritone, piano and percussion (2025) | Commissioned by Ensemble Offspring. | |
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Gilgamesh : opera in two acts (2024) | Commissioned by Phoenix Central Park, Australian String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, Sydney Chamber Opera, Carriageworks. |
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Fire-featuring heaven : for vocal sextet and electronics (2023) | Commissioned by The Song Company. |
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String Quartet No. 2 : string quartet (2022) | Commissioned by the Australian String Quartet for the London season of ANAM Quartetthaus through the Australian String Quartet Richard Divall Australian Music Fund |
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Nothing other than silence : mezzo-soprano voice with piano (2021) | Commissioned by Phoenix Central Park |
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Memory : for flute solo and ensemble (2021) | Commissioned by Ensemble Offspring. |