Adrian Sherriff
photo credit: Matthew Stanton
Adrian Sherriff is a performer, composer, teacher and multi-instrumentalist [brass, winds, percussion and voice]. His early experiences as the child of missionaries in West Papua led him towards a world view constructed from widely disparate cultural experiences: Anglo-Australian home life; indigenous Dani tribal local societal context; American-International schooling environment; and an Indonesian broad societal context. This broad sense of cultural perspective has subsequently informed his development as an artist.
Adrian’s musical foundations are in the study of European classical, Afro-American jazz, South Indian classical, Japanese shakuhachi and Balinese gamelan music traditions. In each of these traditions, Adrian has studied and performed with master musicians of international calibre. Adrian has a Bachelor’s degree in trombone and flute from the Victorian College of the Arts with an Honors from Monash University in South Indian classical percussion. He has also been awarded a Graduate Diploma in Education (Music). Adrian is currently studying European composition with Felix Werder, Japanese shakuhachi with Andrew MacGregor and South Indian classical music with violinist A.G.A. Gynanasundaram. He has also studied and performed with musicians from Sumatran, Latin American, North Indian and African traditions. Adrian is currently employed as a lecturer and tutor at the Victorian College of the Arts where he is also completing his Masters degree.
Since 1995, Adrian has been a frequent performer at the Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane Arts Festivals as well as regionally throughout the eastern seaboard and across to Western Australia. Internationally, Adrian has performed throughout India, Indonesia, Singapore, Europe and in New York. His current performance projects include: Prrim, in collaboration with percussionist Tunji Beier and others; Byar, a Balinese gamelan quartet contracted with Musica Viva in Schools and working in collaboration with Balinese musician Made Sidia and a solo multi-instrumental realtime project. Adrian also leads ‘Oynsemble Melbourne’ - a fourteen piece improvising ensemble which recently premiered a work by Anita Hustas - and ‘Bone Clan’ - a jazz trombone choir which has regularly been featured in various Melbourne festivals in recent years. He is a member of the 'Australian Art Orchestra', Andrea Keller’s 'Bartok Project' and the 'Bennett’s Lane Big Band' among other groups.
Adrian’s recently completed commissions include a work for the Australian Art Orchestra with a quartet of South Indian soloists Trimurti and a folk opera The Butterfly Seer based on West Sumatra randai conventions. Previous works include the acclaimed Into the Fire for the 'Australian Art Orchestra', works for gamelan, scores for dance/theatre collaborations including Malache for the 'Arena Theatre Company' with Tara Rajkumar and works for classical and jazz chamber ensembles.
