Lisa Cheney is an Australian composer of acoustic and acousmatic music, hailing from Queensland and now living in Melbourne. Her music communicates through varied styles which often explore notions of connection and authenticity through fascinations with the ‘edge’ of beauty; expression, poeticism, fragility, delicacy, resonant space, pacing, light and dark and atmospheric soundscapes. Cheney’s work has been described as ‘atmospheres of unfathomable spaciousness’ (Partial Durations), ‘melodic slivers with plaintive intensity’ (The Australian) and ‘fantastic and frightening in its detail and colour’ (Resonate).

Her body of work incorporates orchestra, chamber, voice, acousmatic collaborations, arrangements, theatre and ballet for the Southern Cross Soloists, The Australian Voices, the MSO, TSO and the Australian Ballet. Cheney holds degrees from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and is currently completing a PhD in Music at The University of Melbourne, supervised by Dr. Elliott Gyger and Dr. Katy Abbott-Kvasnica.

Cheney is a co-founder of Making Waves New Music and was named 2017 Victorian Young Achiever of the Year for the Arts. A recipient of the Art Music Fund, she recently wrote an opera for children based on Edward Lear’s poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, which was a finalist for Best Composition at the Matilda Awards. In 2018 her cello an electroacoustic work ‘When We Speak’ was also a finalist for Instrumental Work of the Year at the Art Music Awards.