Adrian Mansukhani

Adrian Mansukhani was born in Hong Kong in 1981. He arrived in Sydney with his family in 1992 and has lived there ever since. He holds both Bachelor of Art (Music) and Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronic) degrees from University of Sydney, while currently studying Master in Music with Professor Anne Boyd at the same university.

Mansukhani has had a number of orchestral works performed by the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra while studying as an undergraduate. He has participated in several national composition programs, such as Symphony Australia's Composers Development Program with Orchestra Victoria, which led to a performance of the orchestral work Psycarnevale; and Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp Composition Program.Recently he also collaborated with Sydney Symphony's Fellowship Program in producing a short chamber work Quietus.

Mansukhani is particularly interested in composing for strings, being a string player himself. He has written several short chamber works for strings and is currently working on a string quartet. As a violinist, he regularly performs compositions of his peers and of his own. He gained his A.Mus.A at the age of 16 and has toured around the world with several youth orchestras. He has also performed with the renowned Australian Youth Orchestra.

Mansukhani works as a part-time violin tutor at various schools in Sydney. During his spare time he enjoys games of snooker and badminton, which he competes at a state level regularly.

James Wade

James Wade was born in Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, studying philosophy, psychology and music history, prior to turning his attention seriously towards music. Initially James studied voice with Steven Grant, then composition under Stuart Greenbaum, Johanna Selleck and Brenton Broadstock. He graduated again from the University of Melbourne in 2005 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and the Esther Rofe Award for composition.

Being largely self-taught and having a late introduction to traditional musical study has resulted in James' tendency to be influenced more by conceptual ideas, than directly by other composers or genres of music. Additionally, the lack of conventional notation within early compositions has resulted in on-going experiments using indeterminate and improvisatory compositional techniques. These methods frequently encourage performers to take a more significant role in the creation of the music. His music often exploits the disparity between complete freedom and regimentation of ideas applied to every aspect in music.

Recent performances of James’ music include the staging of several scenes from his chamber opera Delphi in October 2005, by students from the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music, and the premiere of a number of recent compositions at Melba Hall in November 2005. Future projects include several works for solo piano and a song cycle based on Australian poetry.

James is a member of the Melbourne Composers' League and a writer full member of the Australiasian Performing Right Association.