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Photo: Bridget Elliot

Damien Ricketson grew up in Wollongong where, amongst other activities, he performed in the world-folk ensemble Sea Gypsies. After completing a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with renowned Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. For a number of years, Ricketson lived and worked in The Netherlands and Poland and completed IRCAM's computer music course in Paris. Ricketson recently completed his doctorate in composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he also teaches.

Ricketson is an active promoter of new music, including co-founding and directing Ensemble Offspring, a collective of Sydney-based musicians dedicated to the performance of challenging new work. Much of Ricketson's music has been performed and received critical recognition through this group, as well as performances from ensembles such as MusikFabrik, soloist Peter Hörr (Germany), Crash Ensemble (Ireland), the Orfeuz Chamber Orchestra (Poland), Drumming Grupo de Percussão (Portugal), pianist Naomi Edemariam (Canada), as well as many of Australia's prominent ensembles and orchestras.

Ricketson's works have received numerous awards including the international Lady Panufnik Prize (Poland) for Chinese Whisper; a Marienberg Spring Award for an 'Oustanding Australian composition' Ptolemy's Onion, a work which was subsequently chosen for the Gaudeamus International Music Week; and the work Lamina, which was selected to represent Australian music at the Paris International Rostrum.

Ricketson has been an invited artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre, Canada, the Bundanon Estate (Shoalhaven), the University of Wollongong and will soon take up residency in the Peggy Glanville-Hick house in Paddington, Sydney. Ricketson has received commissions from the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, The Song Company, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Australia and the Portugese-based Drumming Grupo de Percussão.

Biography provided by the composer — current to May 2006