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Ensemble Offspring is Australia’s leading new music group, standing at the forefront of musical innovation.
Led by internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes OAM, the ensemble unites the country’s most fearless and virtuosic instrumentalists with a core “pierrot plus one” line up of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion.
Together, they create “visceral, joyous music” (Sydney Morning Herald) through kaleidoscopically varied performances that blaze a trail for Australian music.
Ensemble Offspring will perform 3 full concerts during the festival, plus a cameo performance at the Gala Opening.
Ensemble Offspring performers at Bellingen Muse 2025 are shown below.
A founding member of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes OAM has directed the group since 2006, initially as co-Artistic Director with Damien Ricketson and since 2015 as sole Artistic Director.
She was recently described as a “unique treasure of Australia’s musical community” by Limelight and as “an invigorating musical life force” by The Age.
She is the only Australian to win the ‘APRA Art Music Luminary Award’ four times and in 2023 she was the recipient of the Creative Leadership Award at the Australian Women in Music Awards.
Claire leaps between her roles as leader, mentor, curator, recording artist, concerto and recital soloist, at all times tirelessly championing new work that she has commissioned predominantly by Australian composers including Iain Grandage, Anne Cawrse, Alice Chance and Kate Moore.
Lamorna Nightingale is a freelance flautist, concert presenter, educator and publisher who is passionate about the future of art music in Australia.
She has extensive experience working in the orchestral sector and has been a core member of Ensemble Offspring since 2007.
Lamorna is the Artistic Director of ‘BackStage Music’, a concert series established in 2016 in Sydney, utilising unusual venues and fostering a diverse culture for living music.
These roles have seen her work directly with hundreds of Australian composers at all stages of their careers and developing programs which create a space for under-represented voices to be heard. Through her publishing company Fluteworthy, she has created several pedagogical volumes of repertoire for young flute players.
Jason Noble is one of Australia’s most adaptable clarinetists, spanning the classical to experimental and improvisatory genres.
A core member of Ensemble Offspring for 25 years, Jason has performed with the group at contemporary music festivals from Warsaw to London and throughout Australia.
His album releases THRUM (2020) and Chi’s Cakewalk (2017) feature new Australian clarinet work reflecting his collaborations with established and emerging composers. He has made guest appearances on albums for Gurrumul, Gondwana Voices, Paul Mac and the Tiwi women’s choir Ngarukuruwala.
As an in-demand music educator and examiner he has been invited to teach two winter academies at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Jason became Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy Director in 2024.
Jean Bernard Marie (piano) was born in Mauritius and began studies in violin, viola & piano at the Sydney Conservatorium and later at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and Royal College of Music in London.
He performs on several continents with orchestras, as soloist, in chamber ensembles and as a lieder accompanist, whilst enjoying regular and close collaborations with contemporary composers, most recently performing world premiers of new works by Brian Nabors & European premiers by Derrick Skye at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Bozart in Brussels and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in 2024.
In 2025 Jean Bernard will release two discs – one of which, a recording of Olivier Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” sponsored by Matador cultural association in Madrid
Alice Morgan is an accomplished Sydney /Eora- based saxophonist and clarinettist who enjoys a varied career of performative mediums within classical, jazz and contemporary genres.
Alice has performed as Guest Principal Saxophone with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and will perform in several concerts across their 2025 season, including as orchestral soloist for Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
In 2024 Alice was Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Associate Artist where she performed in several concerts across their season. Specially commissioned for the program, she premiered and recorded Holly Harrison’s Swivel and Swerve with Hospital Hill at the Church in Alexandria.
