Tiny Porch Series

Celeste Oram is a composer from Aotearoa, New Zealand whose works launch performers and audiences into scenarios confronting sonic and social histories, utopias, and quotidia. Encompassing instrumental writing, song & speech, electronics, visual media, theatre, and improvisation, Celeste’s work has been recognised by the 2017 CANZ Trust Fund Award, a nomination for the 2014 SOUNZ Contemporary Award, and the 2016 Kranichstein Composition Prize from the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, whose jury described her work as ‘strangely entertaining… engaging with history in a striking manner’ and ‘utterly relevant’.

Currently based in San Diego, CA, Celeste is pursuing a PhD in music composition at the University of California San Diego, where she completed an MA in 2016. She completed a BMusBA with first-class Honours at the University of Auckland in 2012. A lifelong choral musician, she is presently assistant director of the San Diego Women’s Chorus.