LONG BIOGRAPHY / CURRICULUM VITAE

 
 

EDUCATION

Lamorna grew up in a musical family, her mother Suzy Miller (Powell) was an professional flute player and teacher and her father Richard Miller was the principal timpanist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for 40 years. Between 1985 and 1990, Lamorna attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music High School, studying flute with Rosamund Plummer and Jane Rutter, piano with Alexandra Vinakurov and Baroque flute with Howard Oberg. She graduated from the Canberra School of Music in 1994 with a Bachelor of Music, studying with Vernon Hill and Virginia Taylor and completed Masters of Performance (M.Perf) in 2000 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying with Margaret Crawford and Geoff Collins.

PERFORMER

Lamorna is an active performer with a passion for collaboration and the development of innovative modes of expression.

Lamorna is a core member of Ensemble Offspring, performing with them since 2007. At the heart of Ensemble Offspring’s mission is an unwavering commitment to the creation and dissemination of living new music. Since forming in 1995, they have commissioned and premiered over 350 new works, solidifying their position as the foremost champions of contemporary music in Australia. In particular, they actively promote underrepresented voices including female-identifying, First Nations, and emerging artists. This dedication has earned the ensemble the 2022 Classical:NEXT Innovation Award, the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Group Award, multiple APRA Art Music Awards and two ARIA Award nominations. They have toured widely both internationally, domestically and regionally including most recently a 2023 European tour and 2024 Music in the Regions Program. Watch some of their performances featuring Lamorna here.

Since 1997 Lamorna has worked regularly in the orchestral sector as a casual flute and piccolo player, performing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (AOBO). ACO Highlights include all Beethoven Symphonies, Mendelssohn and Schumann Symphonies and several Huntington Festivals. AOBO Highlights: Brett Dean Hamlet, seasons of many of Puccini’s operas, Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, Brett Dean Bliss, Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet and many of Tchaikovsky’s ballets. SSO highlights include Stravinsky The Rite of Spring. Mahler Symphonies, Wagner’s Act Three Die Walkure, Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Debussy La Mer, Shostakovich Symphony #5. Lamorna has an interest in early music performance and has performed on period instrument piccolo with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Classical and Romantic Orchestra (ARCO). In 2016 she performed with early music ensemble Brugge Anima Eterna at the Sydney Festival and then at the Lincoln Centre in New York. Lamorna has performed extensively with many chamber music ensemble in Australia - particularly those with a focus on new music including Sydney Chamber Opera (opera’s by Jack Symonds, Rometelli, Saariaho and Mary Finsterer); Seymour Group/Sonic Art Ensemble; Kurrawong Ensemble; The Song Company  and Synergy Percussion. Lamorna has also performed in several long running professional productions of music theatre including Wicked 2023-24, Mary Poppins 2022, The Wizard of Oz 2018, Sweeney Todd 2018, Les Miserables 2016, Porgy and Bess 2006 and Miss Saigon in 2007, Asian Tour 2001 and 1995 -1996

Lamorna has created several albums of new Australian flute music with Fluteworthy including Eat Chocolate and Cry and Spirit of the Plains with associate artists Christine Draeger and Jocelyn Fazzone and Other Voices with associate artist Jane Sheldon (project supported by APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund Commission and Australia Council). She has recorded several pieces for solo flute including Liza Lim’s Bioluminescence and Tristan Murail Unanswered Questions. In 2020 she and her husband James Nightingale developed The Nightingale Project - commissioning and recording several new works for flute and saxophone to celebrate their wedding anniversary. (Works Amanda Cole Oracle Chamber, Tristan Coelho, Rosalind Page and Kezia Yap). In 2016 Lamorna led 104 Flutes - an innovative staged performance of Sciarrino's, Il cerchio tagliato dei suoni for 100 massed flute players plus 4 soloists in the foyer of the High Court of Australia.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS and LEADERSHIP

Lamorna has skills in many of the ‘behind the scenes’ tasks involved in running small arts organisations including website development, curation, event management, budgets, grant writing and team leadership. 

Since 2017 Lamorna has curated and produced Backstage Music, an annual concert series dedicated to energising and shaping the future of Australian Art Music. Her work at BackStage provides opportunities for the development and performance of innovative and experimental work through commissioning new work, enabling collaboration, the development of leadership and curatorial skills, and the nurturing of young artists. Backstage Music encourages and support artists from diverse backgrounds by sharing professional skills with early career artists, people with disability, First Nations artists and people from diverse cultural backgrounds and presenting their work alongside NSW’s most experienced and innovative artists. Backstage Music’s work has been supported by Create NSW, City of Sydney, Australia Council of the Arts, Live Music Australia and the Australian Cultural Fund.

As a long standing member of Ensemble Offspring Lamorna is actively involved in artistic and practical decision making. In 2024 Lamorna joined the board of Ensemble Offspring as the players representative. She is also a committed member of the groups Creative Committee which feeds directly into the artistic decision making of the ensemble. She is also on First Nations Committee working with Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director), Kaleena Briggs (First Nations Director) and Sonya Hollowell (First Nations Board Representative and artistic collaborator).

The Fluteworthy partnership began in 2009 with a single recording project and has developed into a thriving business with direct sales through their website and retail through music shops throughout Australia. Lamorna manages all aspects of the business including managing stock, sales and shipping, website development, marketing and promotion.  

From 2010-2017 Lamorna was a committee member of the Flute Society of NSW.  From 2012-14 she was President and 2015-17 Vice-President. 

EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS 

Lamorna performance career is closely intertwined with her work in the education sector as a flute teacher, examiner, mentor, content creator and publisher. 

TEACHING/EXAMINING ROLES

  • Tertiary Educator : 2021 UNSW Lecturer for Music Lab course. Australian Institute of Music from 2004

  • Private flute teaching studio with flute students ranging from beginner through to AMEB L.Mus. Various school teaching positions including Double Bay Primary School, Newtown High School for the Performing Arts, Sydney Conservatorium of Music High School  (Chamber Music),  MLC Burwood and Australian Institute of Music 

  • Examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) since 2002. Currently Senior examiner.  Adjudicator for the Flute Society of NSW Eisteddfod and Wollongong Eisteddfod. 

WORKSHOPS/PRESENTATIONS and MENTORING

  • 2024 UNSW Master Class Presentation on Careers for Independent Musicians. 2024 Presentation on Music and Technology for ARTS8: the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence.

  • As part of the Fluteworthy team, Lamorna has presented workshops for flute teachers at numerous events including several Australian Flute Festival Professional Learning Days, Flute Society of NSW Gala Days and AMEB Professional Learning Days.  

  • As a performer Lamorna has shared her experience though numerous composer workshops. Ensemble Offspring has presented at MLC Australian Music Days, Richard Gill Presents at the City Recital Hall, Santa Sabina’s Australian Composition Seminar as well as many workshops with tertiary students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, ANU School of Music and WAAPA/University of Western Australia. Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Composer Program provides practical, hands-on experience to a new wave of elite young Australian composers. 

  • BackStage Music provides practical, artistic and administrative support for to develop innovative music programs. This includes mentoring the development of the program through choice of repertoire, presentation style, use of technology and audience development. One-on-one mentoring of young performers and composers is also provided through Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched HOME Academy.

EDUCATION RESOURCES

  • Fluteworthy is a highly successful sheet music publication business dedicated to the production of flute teaching resources for Australian students.  Materials are created in partnership between experienced flute teachers Jocelyn Fazzone, Christine Draeger and Lamorna Nightingale. Resources include recordings of Australian music appropriate for young performers with a particular focus on the HSC core topic Australian Music of the last 25 years: The highly successful Lamorna’s Beginner Flute Book (also available for clarinet and saxophone) and; Graded collections of repertoire and etudes and technical workbooks including Australian music and works by woman composers.

  • Other Voices Education Kit : Based on music by Australian composers Cat Hope, Tristan Coelho and Fiona Hill this education kit was designed to introduce school students to electroacoustic music and contemporary Australian classical composition. The concept and development of the kit was led by Lamorna with content created by the composers and specialist high school music educators. (Supported by NSW Education Department Creative Projects Grant and distributed through the the Education Department to Government Schools.)

  • OffStage To help sustain creative Australian musicians through the COVID19 crisis, BackStage Music paired freelance composers and performers to collaboratively create new work and accompanying digital musical resources forming a growing, invaluable resource for composers, performers, students and educators interested in living music.

  • Composing for Flute I have created a webpage with some tips and links to assist composer with writing ideomatically for the flute.

SCHOOLS and CHILDREN SHOWS : In her early career Lamorna performed in Musica Viva In Schools Education concerts with wind quintet The Chambermaids;  Sydney Opera House Babies Proms; Sydney Symphony’s Sinfonia Schools Program with Richard Gill and Sydney Symphony Family Concerts. More recently Ensemble Offspring regularly presents family friendly shows including their annual event Sizzle at local bowling clubs. In 2018 they presented two programs at the Sydney Opera House in collaboration with ABC Classic Kids including Sounds of Australia and  Music for the Dreaming (music by Brenda Gifford) which was nominated for and ARIA award.

SUPPORT OF AUSTRALIAN and UNDER REPRESENTED ARTISTS 

Lamorna has a strong commitment to supporting and nurturing Australian artists, in particular women composers, First Nations artists and artists with disability. 

AUSTRALIAN MUSIC Lamorna has worked directly with hundreds of Australian composers through her work with Ensemble Offspring, nurturing composers at all stages in their careers. She has created three albums of Australian Flute music collaborating with composers to create idiomatic flute music that can be performed by young players.  This has involved commissioning new work and finding innovative ways of sharing these works so they can be performed and enjoyed by other flautists and in the classroom. BackStage Music provides opportunities for Australian artists to perform innovative new work with a strong focus on Australian content. In 2020 Lamorna and her husband, saxophonist James Nightingale commissioned three new works for flute and saxophone to celebrate wedding anniversary and birthdays. 

FIRST NATIONS : In recent year’s Lamorna has become fascinated by Indigenous culture and how through building ongoing relationships with First Nations Peoples though music we can address the disparity in opportunity that exists in Australia. She sits on the Ensemble Offspring First Nations committee and has been actively involved the Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers program. In 2023 Ensemble Offspring toured Europe with First Nations composer and singer Nardi Simpson performing her music and other First Nations composers to audiences in Berlin.  In 2021 Lamorna worked with Nardi Simpson on a show ‘Yugal Mudhaybaraay’ (Possum Song) for the Canberra International Music Festival. In 2021 she presented a solo set as part of Ensemble Offspring’s Musical Microparks at the Sydney Festival with music by Brenda Gifford (Yuin) and dance by Emily Flannery (Wiradjuri). 

In 2024 Backstage Music presented their second show featuring First Nations performers curated by Big Noters (Tim Gray, Troy Russell and Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs). In this ongoing program Backstage Music works together with Big Noters to develop the necessary skills and confidence for them to provide culturally based support and networking to First Nations Musicians across the state. Lamorna works with Big Noters enabling them to lead the development, decision making and implementation of their show including the theme, artists and music for the show and responsibility for checking cultural protocol, consulting with elders and reaching out to mob.

DISABILITY AND ACCESS In 2024 BackStage developed our first Disability Inclusion and Access Plan with an artistic vision and steps towards providing a safe space for all artists and audience to engage with Australian music and the broader culture. Our first program Shift created a platform for artists with disabilty, celebrating the unique contribution they provide to the musical and artistic landscape both in Australia and internationally that comes from their lived experience. This program was presented in collaboration with the Sydney Opera House, and is available to view on their streaming platform. In 2024 we presented ‘Trace’ - an immersive, multi-sensory program curated by Ria Andriani including an innovative new work by Georgia Scott which incorporated audio-description into the artistic framework of the composition.

WOMAN COMPOSERS Lamorna is committed to gender equity in all her artistic pursuits. BackStage Music is signed up the Keychange PBS Gender Equity Pledge ensuring equal representation for performers, composers and in staffing.  The BackStage Music Now You Hear Her was a month long festival at the World Square shopping centre in 2021 with over 30 events including workshops, films and panel discussions celebrating the women in our lives. Ensemble Offspring also has an active commitment to gender parity in its programming. In 2017 the group exclusively programmed the music of woman as a bold move to highlight the quality of work by female composers.