AAO Staff
Aaron Choulai - Artistic Director
Aaron Choulai is an award winning and critically acclaimed pianist and composer whose work is recognised as innovating new directions in jazz, hip-hop and improvised music. From large scale multi media cross-cultural festival commissions. to Japanese hip-hop beat tapes, Choulai’s career spans over 20 years, crossing international borders and intersections between genre and culture.
Born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and having lived in Tokyo for 15 years, Aaron Choulai is an artist of diverse culture and musical expression. Choulai began his career in Melbourne as a pianist before signing with the American record label Sunnyside records and moving to New York in the early 2000’s. While working during this time as a bandleader and sideman in America and Europe, Choulai’s profile as a composer and arranger grew while participating in projects such as The Black Arm Band (arr: 2007) We Don’t Dance For No Reason (comp: 2008) and Kate Ceberano (md: 2004 -2007) back in Australia. In 2008 he undertook postgraduate studies at theTokyo University of the Arts and after graduating in 2013, continued living in Tokyo where he has become a prominent figure in music in Japan.
Aaron Choulai was awarded the Freedman Fellowship in Jazz (2014), the MEXT scholarship (2008) and was included in ‘The 100 most influential people in Melbourne’ by People Magazine (2005). He has collaborated with various artists including Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter, Ben Monder, Jim Black, Daichi Yamamoto, Slack, Alan Browne, Paul Grabowsky, Joel Frahm, Yoshimoto Akihiro and more.
Sarah Wade - Executive Director
Sarah Wade is an arts manager with a passion for music and the arts in community, and their powerful capacity to impact both society and individuals.
Sarah has worked across a range of leading organisations, including in program coordination roles at Melbourne Recital Centre, Wyndham City Arts & Culture, Woodend Winter Arts Festival, the National Institute of Circus Arts, and The Australian Ballet School. She has additionally held leadership and project management roles with CresFest and Boxwood Australia, and supported a roster of artists at Cinque Artist Management.
Sarah is known for her strategic, process-driven approach balanced with a deep consideration for artists, audiences, colleagues and creative practice. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Arts Management) from WAAPA and an MBA from RMIT University.
As a musician, she has curated programs and performed at festivals and concerts on pipes, concertina and recorder.
Jem Savage - Producer and Technical Director
Jem Savage is a music engineer, instrumentalist and producer based in Geelong, Australia. Jem’s solo and collaborative performances incorporate a range of instruments and performance controllers alongside bespoke audio and MIDI software. His practice integrates generative sonic environments and stochastic control ecosystems, allowing for elements of chance and the potential for chaos to shape and unfold throughout live realisations.
Jem has collaborated with a distinctive range of artists including Andrea Keller, Peter Knight, Nicole Lizée, Kim Myhr and Kutcha Edwards. As an audio engineer, he specialises in contemporary and experimental music, pairing musical fluency with deep technical expertise. He has engineered recordings of Alvin Lucier’s "Swing Bridge" and “Sizzles", as well as the Australian Art Orchestra’s critically acclaimed commissions “Sometimes Home Can Grow Stranger Than Space” and “The Plains”.
Jem’s role as Producer & Technical Director with the Australian Art Orchestra allows him to engage with creative music on many levels; overseeing live sound and high-quality documentation of all performances and developments, working with the upcoming generation of artists while facilitating professional development activities, and touring with the AAO ensemble and providing artist liaison support for visiting national and international artists.
At the core of Jem’s practice is a commitment to curiosity, invention, and deep listening. Whether performing, engineering, or producing, he constantly strives towards new ways of hearing, responding to, and shaping music in the moment.
Jo Redfearn - Producer and Digital Content Creator
Joanne Redfearn joined the Australian Art Orchestra team in 2023, bringing a dynamic background in theatre, film, and immersive performance. With early training as an actor and experience developing independent theatre through her company The Honeytrap, she went on to receive a British Council award to shadow leading UK companies including The Royal Court, Punchdrunk and National Theatre Wales. Her practice evolved into directing and producing devised, immersive works which led to her developing The Bluey Live Experience for Ludo Studio and the BBC, and producing the eight-week Borealis on the Lake installation in Daylesford.
At AAO, she has produced key events including Raw Denshi, Lo-Fi Improv, and the Orchestra’s 2024 tour to Tokyo. She also produced Ane Ta Abia for Asia TOPA 2025 — a landmark collaboration with the Tatana village choir from Papua New Guinea — and supported projects such as Wuigada Gagada and Straight Up and Down at Section 8.
A skilled organiser and creative collaborator, she combines an eye for narrative with expertise in producing, partnerships, marketing and logistics. Her passion for cinema and sound continues to inform her work, especially where moving image and live music intersect to create new emotional and cultural possibilities.