Genevieve Lacey


Genevieve Lacey is an Australian musician and recorder virtuoso, working as a performer, creator, curator and cultural leader. The practice of listening is central to her works, which are created collaboratively with artists from around the world.

Early Life and Education

Born in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the third of four children of Ann and Roderic Lacey, Genevieve and her family moved to Australia in 1980. They lived in Canberra for one year where all the Lacey children learnt music from Judith Clingan. In 1981 the family moved to Ballarat, where Genevieve completed school, and studied recorder with Helen Fairhall and oboe with . She moved to Melbourne to attend the University of Melbourne from 1991-94, studying English Literature and Music.  She then moved to Basel, Switzerland, where she undertook postgraduate studies in medieval and renaissance music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Relocating to Denmark to attend the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, Odense, Genevieve received a Diploma in recorder performance in the class of Dan Laurin. She returned to Australia in 1998, and completed a doctorate at the University of Melbourne. She has since been based in Melbourne.

Career as a Recorder Virtuoso

As a recorder virtuoso, Genevieve Lacey has performed at the , for Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, on a basketball court on Thursday Island with Australian indigenous ensemble The Black Arm Band, as a concerto soloist in the Royal Albert Hall for BBC Proms and at the opening night of the London Jazz Festival. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including Australian Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Kymi and Tapiola Sinfonietta Finland, Concerto Copenhagen, English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, St Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and the Melbourne, Adelaide, West Australian, Tasmanian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. Lacey has performed chamber music with artists such as James Crabb, Marshall McGuire, Jane Gower and Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Paolo Pandolfo, , Paul Grabowsky, Neal Peres Da Costa and Daniel Yeadon, Karin Schaupp, Flinders Quartet and Elision Ensemble, and has appeared at festivals including Sound Unbound, Paris Festival d’Automne, Klangboden Wien, Seoul International Music Festival, and at Cheltenham, Huddersfield, Copenhagen Summer, Montalbane, and all the major Australian arts festivals.
Genevieve Lacey has also made an extensive contribution to contemporary recorder repertoire, commissioning and premiering works by composers as wide-ranging as Australians Liza Lim, Elena Kats-Chernin, Brett Dean, Lou Bennett, Andrea Keller, Hollis Taylor, Paul Grabowsky, Ben Frost, as well as Erkki-Sven Tuur, John Surman, Max de Wardener, Jason Yarde, Jan Bang, Christian Fennesz and Nico Muhly.

Creations: solo and collaborative projects

Genevieve Lacey’s creations combine her skills as a performer, composer and curator. Always seeking to connect people and ideas, her works are experienced in a wide variety of contexts. Current collaborators include filmmakers Amos Gebhardt and Sophie Raymond, writers Alexis Wright and Chloe Hooper, choreographers Gideon Obarzanek and , ornithologist/composer and Antarctic scientist .
Genevieve Lacey is a member of the curatorial team for 2020-21, is the artistic advisor to , and was recently the chamber music curator of A Brief History of Time for the 2019 Adelaide International Arts Festival. In 2018, she was the artist in residence for the Melbourne Recital Centre, and the curator and artistic director for the Whoever You Are Come Forth celebrations for the centenary of St Mary’s College, University of Melbourne. Other curatorial roles include the inaugural curator for UKARIA 24 in 2016, creator, curator and presenter for Words and Music at Wheeler Centre in 2014, and curating the live music program for the Art Music Awards, APRA-Australian Music Centre, 2013–15. She was the artistic director for Musica Viva Australia’s FutureMakers from 2015 - 19, from 2008 -12, and the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival between 1999-2003. She has provided support and guidance to emerging artists as a creative and entrepreneurial mentor, with positions including mentoring for the Freedman Fellowship Finalists mentor 2019-2020 and the Australian National Academy of Music’s Fellowship program between 2014–16.

Awards and honorary positions

Awards

Chair, Board of Directors, Australian Music Centre, 2016–20; Advisory Council, The New Approach, 2018–20; Director, Four Winds Festival Foundation Board, 2018–20; International Jury Member, , 2017; Advisory Panel, , 2015–17; Peer Assessment Panel, Australia Council for the Arts, 2015–20; Board of Directors, Australian Music Centre, 2013–15; Advisory Panel, Black Arm Band, 2011–15; Judging Panel, City of Melbourne Arts Grants, 2011–20; Advisory Committee, Australian Music Centre, 2010–12; Judging Panel, Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, 2008-09; Board of Directors, Elision Ensemble, 2008–15; Board of Directors, Astra Chamber Music Society, 2006–12; Board of Directors, Australian Music Centre, 2006–10; Judging Panel, Composer Fellowship Award, 2005–07; Artistic Review Panel, Musica Viva Australia, 2004–08; Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne, 2002–2020.

Instruments

Genevieve plays handmade recorders made by and the late Fred Morgan. In her collection, she also has instruments by David Coomber, Monika Musch, Michael Grinter, Paul Whinray and Herbert Paetzold.