Based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra, ACT), Luminescence has emerged as one of Australia’s most dynamic ensembles, championing our original instrument: the human voice. Comprised of six professional singers, Luminescence has built an enviable reputation as a uniquely versatile ensemble, performing repertoire that spans more than 2000 years from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary art music, and increasingly working across amplified and unamplified forms.
Recent highlights include sold-out performances at the Sydney Opera House (2025), Melbourne Recital Centre (2024/2025), and National Museum of Australia (2024). In June 2025, Luminescence appeared alongside Elena Kats-Chernin and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performing Kats-Chernin’s score for special screenings of Adam Elliot’s Oscar-nominated film, Memoir of A Snail. In July, the group premiered a new work by Kats-Chernin, commissioned in celebration of their milestone birthday, and in August 2025, Luminescence won the APRA AMCOS State Luminary Art Music Award for the ACT.
2025 marked Luminescence’s 10th anniversary and the beginning of numerous major projects, including a three-year Gesualdo Tenebrae and Luminescence and the Machine, an experimental new music project developed in collaboration with sound designer Tilman Robinson, GRAMMY-award winning producer and composer William Brittelle (USA) and GRAMMY-award winning bass Cameron Beauchamp (Roomful of Teeth, USA).
During 2023-2024, Luminescence recorded and released their first studio recordings, including new music by Australian composers Dan Walker, Jess Green, and Leah Blankendaal. Luminescence’s debut album, Of The Body, was recorded in April 2024 by ABC Classic and released in December 2025.
Photo: WILK