Gabo Cadenhead : Associate Artist
Photo: Henry Paul
Gabi Cadenhead is a poet and composer living on unceded Gadigal
and Wangal land. Their creative practice is one of intersections
- between story and sound; between performance and protest;
between embodiment, queerness and the sacred. They graduated with
a Bachelor of Music Studies (Composition) and Bachelor of Arts
(English and Studies in Religion) from Sydney Conservatorium of
Music and the University of Sydney in 2020.
Gabi's chamber music has been workshopped and performed by
Ensemble Offspring through their Hatched Composer School in 2021
and Sydney Chamber Opera as part of their Composition Masterclass
in 2017. They have also enjoyed collaborating with emerging peers
Ensemble MUSE, Quart-Ed and The Judgment of Paris. Gabi was
composer in residence of Newcastle Youth Orchestra in 2016 and
composed for Gondwana Voices as part of Gondwana Choirs' Composer
School in 2019.
Gabi has been commissioned by Divisi Chamber Singers for their
Compose Queer x Queerstories collaboration, premiered in
Melbourne in 2025, and by Fluteworthy, who published their work
'Secret Signals' in their Ensemble Workbook. As a flautist, they
have performed their own compositions at Vivid Sydney, Extended
Play New Music Festival and Sydney Fringe Festival. Gabi's work
'Echo' for poetry and solo flute received an Honourable Mention
in the Flute New Music Consortium's Composition Competition in
2018 and has since been performed in the US.
Gabi's creative practice is integrally interdisciplinary; their
poetry often informs, inspires and appears alongside their music,
both sung and spoken. Gabi's poetry has been published by Minds
Shine Bright, #EnbyLife Journal, Insights Magazine and Sunder
Journal, awarded Highly Commended in the Calanthe Collective
Prize for Unpublished Poetry in 2024 and longlisted for
Queensland Writers Centre's Publishable program in 2025.
Gabi is co-founder of sacred arts project Marion St, with whom
they have released multiple EPs, and they are part of the artist
collective at Annandale Creative Arts Centre.
Biography provided by the composer