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For me, music is an embodied response to rapture, to the joy of living in a transcendent, divinely created world. In my composition, the play of sentience and interconnection within Nature inspires a profusion of detail in continual transformation, propelled by the rhythmic energy of the dancing cosmos.

Born in Echuca (Yorta Yorta: meeting of the waters), 1967.

Tempany's work explores interconnections between our conscious experience and the varied ecosystems which sustain life. A tabla player, dholi and workshop artist, Tempany is fascinated by the power of rhythm to dissolve social boundaries and open up new ways of seeing and connecting.

Her first formal musical training was the study of Hindustani tabla with Uma Kanta Dash in Puri, India (1989-1996). Seeking to use the tabla rhythms and sounds in a Melburnian context, Tempany completed a music degree at La Trobe University in 1999. The quest to integrate very disparate systems of musical thought has remained at the heart of Tempany's aesthetic.

An original sense of form and development renders energy from patterning in the natural world into musical sound, in a process resembling transcription via the dance of mirror neurons. Tempany's kinaesthetic modelling combines gestural lines inspired by life drawing with a layered heterophony. Structures explore extended metaphor, developed through a process of field trips and reading in the natural sciences.

Since 2010, studies in Punjabi folk arts and West African drumming led to a broader concept of rhythm as the expression of a resilient life force and a tool for intercultural social cohesion. Tempany has participated in cultural music and dance events in Chandigarh, Puri, Bhubaneshwar, Conakry, Karachi and Bjolkjam, and facilitated workshops across a tremendous range of settings. Desire for a more culturally inclusive art music has prompted more overt use of rhythm in her composition.

Works have been premiered by Michael Kieran Harvey, Mohamed Camara, Peter Neville, Joseph Lallo, Briana Leaman, Peter de Jager, Heather Fletcher and Caroline Almonte, at venues such as Hamer Hall, MoNA.

As a percussionist and workshop artist, Tempany appeared in Scandinavia supporting the indigenous White Cockatoo Performing Group, and across Australia at festivals, with numerous artist residencies including at ANAM, the Grainger Museum and IgniteLab.

Tempany has received the Dorian Le Gallienne Composition Award, the Catherine Mary Sullivan Scholarship in Music Composition and an Australian Government Endeavour Award, enabling study in Chandigarh, India. Currently doing a PhD at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Biography provided by the composer — current to October 2024