‘Gabriella Smart has been a champion of contemporary music nationally for over 20 years…’– Chris Reid, Music Australia
Gabriella Smart’s unique art practice embraces piano performance, improvisation, composition, advocacy, education, commissioning and curation. She is a leading advocate of new music in Australia, with sustained contribution over 30 years. Her expertise as an Australian representative artist has been recognised with numerous awards and grants. Gabriella holds a PhD in Music from the University of Adelaide and is an active researcher with publications on new music, curation and Australian musical history. An internationally recognised multi-award-winning pianist specialising in classical and new music, Gabriella has performed extensively in Australia and internationally, premiering over 60 new works for solo piano by Australian and international composers in Australia, Europe and China, and collaborating with musicians as diverse as Elena Kats Chernin, Erkki Veltheim, Cathy Milliken, Jon Rose and Tamara Anna Cislowska.
‘…the fearless Gabriella Smart pounding, caressing and cajoling beautiful and extraordinary sounds from the piano…’– The Australian
‘Smart’s performance was mesmerising…’– The West Australian
Gabriella’s performance of Alvin Curran’s solo For Cornelius was described as ‘meltingly beautiful’ and ‘mesmerising’ (The Australian). She has performed widely as a soloist throughout Australia, and internationally, promoting the works of Australian composers. Gabriella has performed in the Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide International Festivals, MONA MOFO, TURA (Perth) and in Europe and China (Forbidden Palace Beijing, Shanghai Conservatory, Lyceum Theatre Shanghai). In 2010, she represented Australia at the World Expo in Shanghai. Gabriella has given numerous live and recorded broadcasts for ABC Classic FM.
‘Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities works for solo piano are deeply reflective meditations on form and style, and, at the hands of the pianist Gabriella Smart, the works ring out with exemplary clarity. Smart, the Australian virtuoso specialising in new music…a reminder of the sensuous plushness that a keyboard is capable of.’– The Wire
An active and engaged composer and improvisor, she has collaborated and performed with such luminaries as Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes), Alvin Curran, Cat Hope, Derek Pascoe and Johannes Sistermanns as part of UnPiano Trio, and Paul Grabowsky
‘… sheer poetry… an enlightening glimpse into the rarefied realm of contemporary art music.’– The Australian
Gabriella has extensive experience and recognised expertise in curation and artistic direction of national and international artistic events. For 23 years, she has been Artistic Director of Soundstream New Music, having curated four festivals and 20 concert series for Soundstream Collective, Ensemble in Residence at the University of Adelaide, established in 2011. A passionate educator, Gabriella established the Soundstream Emerging Composers’ Forum in 2012, a nationally recognised Australian Forum for the mentoring, recognition and commissioning of new works in Australia by emerging composers. With Cat Hope in 2018, she established Summers Night Project, inspired by Anne Summers’ Women’s Manifesto (2017), and aims to grow the gender diversity of composers in music programs in Australia and support and mentor female and non-binary composers. The Project is presented by Tura New Music with project partners Soundstream, Monash University, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
‘Gabriella’s breadth of story-telling and her innovative means of working take us right out of covid obsessed 2021.’– Becky Llewellyn, composer
Gabriella’s excellence has been recognised through major awards including residencies, and prestigious fellowships. In 2020/21 she was the recipient of a Paris Residency and an Artist Grant from The Australia Council for the Arts, a South Australian Government Creative Fellowship, and an APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual. In 2018, she was awarded a Prelude Composer Residency (Australia) and a UNESCO City of Music residency in Katowice, Poland. Previously, Gabriella has been the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship (2010), national Helpmann Award (2009), and Ruby Award for Best Event in South Australia in 2009.
Current projectsGabriella is currently working across a range of projects. She is touring PRIMORDIAL, a new work by Constantine Koukias (AUS/NETH) for piano and diverse media, across Australia with plans for a European tour in 2023, and preparing premieres by Mary Finsterer (AUS), Pamela Madsen, Jack Vees, Cindy Cox (USA), Agata Zubel (POL) and Spiros Mazis (GRE) to tour in 2022. Gabriella has several composition projects for 2021 and 2022. She has been commissioned by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Australian Dance Theatre in 2022/21 to write new works, with recordings imminent. She is composing music for a new Virtual Reality work, WAVE, with producer Mark Patterson and ceramicist Gerry Wedd inspired by the stunning Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. WAVE is supported by the SA Government through its Recovery Fund. Additionally, she has been commissioned by ABC Classic FM to co-write new songs with the Titjikala Womens’ Choir (Northern Territory) and acclaimed songstress Nancy Bates. With Luke Smiles, Gabriella is co-writing music for choreographer Rachel Arianne Ogle’s 2022 Perth Festival commission, And the Earth Shall Swallow Them Whole.