Brenda Gifford facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brenda Gifford
Background information
Born	1968 (age 56–57) Australia
Genres	Classical
Occupation(s)	Composer, music archivist

Brenda Gifford, born in 1968, is an amazing musician. She is a Yuin classical composer, which means she writes classical music. Brenda also plays the saxophone and piano. She used to be in a rock band called Mixed Relations. Today, she also works as an archivist at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). An archivist helps to collect and keep important old recordings and films safe.

Brenda Gifford's Music Journey

Brenda grew up in Sydney and Wreck Bay, near Jervis Bay, in New South Wales, Australia.

Early Music Career

In the late 1980s, Brenda started playing saxophone and piano. She joined a band called Mixed Relations with Bart Willoughby. In the 1990s, she helped with Kev Carmody's album Eulogy (For A Black Person). She also taught music at Eora College in Redfern. As her band became more popular, she left teaching to focus on the music.

Mixed Relations toured around the world. They became well-known in Australia. Their song Aboriginal Woman was very popular. It reached #89 on Triple J's Hottest 100 in 1993. The band stopped playing together by the end of the 1990s. After a break, Brenda started a new career as a composer. This means she began writing her own music.

Becoming a Composer

In 2016, Brenda joined a special program. It was called the AMPlify Indigenous Composer Initiative. This program helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander composers create new music. Their new songs were played by a group called Ensemble Offspring. These concerts happened between 2017 and 2018.

Because of this, the Canberra International Music Festival asked Brenda to create a new suite of music. A suite is a collection of musical pieces. She named it Gambambarawaraga. This name means "seasons" in the Dhurgha language. Her nine-part suite was performed at the festival in 2018.

Award-Winning Music

Songs from her Gambambarawaraga suite were later put on an album. This album was called Music for the Dreaming. It was nominated for an ARIA Award. It was nominated for Best Children's Album in 2019. The album had new versions of her songs. Ensemble Offspring played them with Kamil Ellis.

In 2018, Brenda also joined the Composing Women Program. This was at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. There, Claire Chase worked with Brenda and four other Australian composers. They created new musical pieces. The five composers then went to New York. Their music was performed there with Claire Chase. Brenda's piece was called Mungala (Clouds). It featured Claire Chase playing the flute. It also used traditional clap sticks. These were played by percussionist Bree van Reyk. Brenda was also part of the program in 2020-2021. She worked on a new project with Sydney Dance Company. She wrote the music for dancer Joel Bray's Wagan (Wiradjuri for 'Raven'). This was performed in 2020.

Recent Work and Recognition

In 2020, Brenda worked with Ensemble Offspring again. She became their first First Nations Composer in Residence. In the same year, she was asked to create a new piece called Djiribawal. This piece opened the Canberra International Music Festival 2020. Later, this work was changed to include more instruments and electronic sounds in 2021 and 2022.

In 2021, all concerts by the Sydney Chamber Choir started with Brenda's song. It was called Mother Earth/Minga Bagan. This song was an acknowledgement of country. The choir had asked her to write it.

Brenda also works at the National Film and Sound Archive. She writes notes and blogs for their website. Her work was used for the notes of a re-released album. This was Vic Simms' album The Loner.

In 2023, Brenda received the Merlyn Myer Music Commission. This is a special award for music. She was also given the First Nations Fellowship. This was at the 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards.

Selected Works

• 2021 - Dharawa Miriwa (night sky) - Commissioned by PLEXUS
• 2021 - Minga bagan
• 2020 - Djiribawal
• 2020 - Wagan
• 2018 - Mungala (Clouds)
• 2018 - Gambambarawaraga