Meet Imogen
Imogen Ferdinando (she/her) is a composer, performer, conductor and artistic director based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her music has been performed internationally, featuring in the Osaka World Expo 2025 (Japan), the Cortona Sessions for New Music 2024 (Netherlands), the World Saxophone Congress 2023 (Spain), and has received performances in Sweden, Vanuatu, New Zealand, and across Australia. Influenced by impressionism, 20th-21st century new music and traditional Sinhala music, Imogen’s compositional practice draws inspiration from narratives that explore themes within the human condition and the world around us, presenting in the form of solo, chamber, and orchestral works for the concert hall.
Imogen has composed for the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Young Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Riverside Guitar Ensemble, Griffith Film School, and the Noosa Orchestra. Regularly collaborating in chamber music contexts, she has recently been commissioned by artists and ensembles such as Dialogue of Minds, Red Room Chamber Ensemble, and Eden Annesley from Duo Aki. In 2024 she was a recipient of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Emerging Artist Grant which enabled her to travel to the Netherlands to further her study in chamber music. Aside from composing, Imogen is also an avid performer. Some of her recent session work includes recording cello for Joff Bush Music on the Bluey album ‘Rug Island’, and for Brian Cachia at BCMuse Studios for the upcoming U.S documentary ‘Black Sunday’. Additionally, as part of her Honours research she has embarked on a journey to learn the traditional Sri Lankan drum known as the thammattama .
With a passion for showcasing Australian new music and its creators, Imogen is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Nexus New Music; a not-for-profit arts organisation based in Meanjin. Nexus New Music produces concert series that foster creativity and nurture a collaborative space between emerging composers, artists, performers and audience to spotlight the exciting new voices in the Australian music scene.
Imogen holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons I) from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, majoring in composition under the tutelage of Dr. Gerardo Dirié and Dr. Nicole Murphy. In 2025 she was awarded the University Medal for Outstanding Academic Excellence. Supervised by Professor Catherine Grant, her Honours research explores hybrid music practices as a method to approaching intercultural composition, drawing from her own Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Western cultural heritage.
