14 July 2026
Beyond a Bio: Peggy Polias
Image: Peggy Polias
Beyond a Bio is our new interview series aimed at shining a
spotlight on composers and creators, giving audiences an insight
into their creative process, current work and the art music
community in general.
This week we chat to Dr Peggy
Polias (she/her) a composer, academic,
music librarian and music engraver living and working on Dharug
and Eora lands in south-west Sydney. A graduate of the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music where she holds a part-time academic
role, her creative and musical interests lie in themes of safety,
secrecy and journaling in sound and the creative process. Polias
also explores myth and artefact, especially from ancient Greece,
in recent works such as Commute (2018-20), a chamber
opera, Arachne (2023) a Sydney Symphony Orchestra 50
Fanfares commission and Cameo (2025), a chamber
composition written as Composer in Connection with the Canberra
Symphony Orchestra. Polias has released two digital albums
Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite and Hive with
Kammerklang.
Now, let's go beyond a bio...
How would you describe your music to someone
hearing it for the first time?
A distinct musical voice that blends melancholy and strangeness
through modal harmonies and minimalist textures that cycle and
evolve. The music often has a strong conceptual, symbolic or
narrative journey for the listener to embark on.
How does a new work usually begin for
you?
I have developed a ritual of laying
out a colourful
blanket on the
ground, with a freshly brewed cup of tea in a kind of "picnic"
where I sketch shapes and mind maps for whole-work concepts and
structures, using coloured
pens on large
format blank paper and graph paper alongside manuscript.
What
ideas or sounds are inspiring you right
now?
I've been responding musically
to artefacts and ideas from ancient Greek myth for many years,
especially looking for present-day resonance. Sonically I have a
strong nostalgic pull towards
1980s
synth pop and compositionally towards the beautiful scoring
detail of Bartók.
Can
you tell us about a recent project or
work?
Most recently Eleni - The Water Bearer
was premiered by Arafura
Music Collective in two concerts in Darwin NT. This composition
is a loving tribute to the Kalymnian-Greek
diaspora in Darwin framed around a statue in the Smith Street
Mall. Four musical sections
rise up like "islands" out of a
recurring seawater texture, reflecting the fluid and
interconnected realities of migration, and the blur between
memories and dreams, past and present, here and there. The larger
concert program, The Unbroken
Thread, explored
similar themes of culture and migration in Australia and Darwin
via the prism of Greek heritage.
Melissa from Hive is performed in the above recording
by The Nano Symphony: Catherine Thompson (clarinet), Neil
Thompson (viola), Lee Akinsanya (piano). Melissa was
on the program in The Unbroken Thread performed in
Darwin 13-14 June 2026, by Laura Llewellyn, Annette Anderson
and Hui-Min Leastman.
What do
you hope listeners experience in your
music?
I hope to extend an
experience of connectedness, where listeners can relate to
something in the sounds, but also are free to take in the music
uniquely within their own frame of experience.
Where/how do you work
best?
I have a home
office/studio with a desktop computer and
electric piano. I prefer to work
during business hours while family are at school/work, so that
we can share time together out of hours. However expensive
Sydney creativity happens around other work commitments, so
there are often moments grabbed on the train or short bursts
later in the evening. Motivic ideas come best at the piano,
written down with pen.
What's something people might not
expect about your creative
process?
The whole process
archive for a
composition encompasses many digital and physical scraps
including Excel files, links, voice recordings, graph paper,
etc. I've explored process in
detail through creative research as a form of journalling, and
I really enjoy sharing possibilities with student composers at
the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
If you
had to name one Australian work everyone should hear, what
would it be?
I can never name just one
work, so instead I'll recommend Cameron Lam and
Limelight Magazine's annual Guide to Australian
Composers. Dip in for 25
voted works, or deep dive for 500
strong recordings.
What excites you about Australian
art music right now?
As an academic at
Sydney Conservatorium of Music teaching composition, I am
really heartened by the enthusiasm and eclectic creative
outlook of the newest generations of composers.
What's next for you?
I
have really enjoyed being among colleagues at Sydney
Conservatorium of Music who recently composed new works for a
study on Music and Imagination by Steffen Herff, Ceren Ayyildiz
and others in the Sydney Music, Mind and Body
Lab. I can't wait to hear back responses from listeners to
four versions of my composition, Meander, and whether
composer intentions are able to influence or relate somehow
listeners' imagined visualisations.
© Australian Music Centre (2026) — Permission must be obtained from the AMC if you wish to reproduce this article either online or in print.
Subjects discussed by this article:
- Peggy Polias (Interviewee)
- Peggy Polias
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