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Photo: Taken by the composer.

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Soulful vocals caress a gentle ukulele, stitched together with a lilting flute, to create the sonic palette of the multidisciplinary artist The Emerald Ruby. Working out of Awabakal and Wollomi land, her art practice is prolific and multifaceted, encompassing performance, composition, fine arts, photography, videography, fashion design, and the written word. The Emerald Ruby's artistic exploits often explore her experiences moving through the world as a late-diagnosed autistic human.

A kaleidoscope of influences nourishes every performance from this multi-genre powerhouse. The hazy virtuosity of 18th-century french flute music, chaotic abstractions of a moonlit jazz jam, and trading traditional jigs and reels at a folk session interweave with a decade of recording and journeying with music across the east coast of Australia.

The Emerald Ruby has journeyed down an unconventional path, beginning with her graduation from the University of Newcastle in 2015 under the tutelage of Sally Walker (flute), Phillip Rutherford (composition), and Colin Spiers (composition). She departed the experience with a Bachelor of Music (Honors) and the Maurice and Betsy Sendak award for outstanding performance. Since graduating, The Emerald Ruby has toured and recorded extensively with the rock band Cacti Moon, the folk band The Button Collective, the experimental folk/jazz band Vanishing Shapes, the jazz-rock band Othrship, and the psych-rock band Lachlan X Morris. The Emerald Ruby has also graced the stages of the Great Southern Nights, Melbourne Ukulele Festival (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023), Bulga Beats festival (2019, 2023), Lazybones Lounge, Falls Festival, and Non-Stop Festival. She was the 2022 Dots and Loops Composer Fellow (mentored by Sally Whitwell, Conner D'Netto, Chris Perren, Vanessa Tomlinson, and Flora Wong), premiering a new work for percussion (toy drums, rainbow glockenspiel) and electronics (double gameboy, octave pedal, and otamatone) titled "H4LT THE HUSTLE/FROLIC 4EVA" alongside internationally acclaimed percussionist Nozomi Omote.

Since 2021, The Emerald Ruby has released a plethora of original pieces, with scores and music videos across multiple genres created with crippling budgets of no more than a few hundred dollars. In 2021, she released her internationally recognised debut solo flute EP, video series, and sheet music collection titled "5 Short Thoughts for Solo Flute". Thereafter, she released a new work for the flute choir titled "Cordelia's Jig", based on the book "Anne of Green Gables", and her first folk tune EP titled "Folksy Dreams Volume 1". In 2022, she released "The End of Torpor", a duet for flute and cello, followed by "Grandparents for Sale", a protest song, and "Folksy Dreams Volume 2", the second EP from her folk tune series.

Recently, she was commissioned by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) to write a collection of flute duets about finding beauty amongst the red tape that governs her life as a disabled artist. This will be recorded in the ABC's studio in Ultimo alongside Sally Walker.

Jennifer Hankin — current to July 2023