RACHAEL DEASE
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Composer and Sound Designer

Rachael is a composer and sound designer whose practice spans art music, dance and theatre scoring, installation and songwriting.  Her music projects have garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards. She is a quintessential and in-demand collaborator - creating large and small scale works across many genres.  Classically trained, with roots in the art rock/pop world, and with a knowledge of sound design and production, Rachael’s creates music and sound that supports, enhances, elevates, and extends. 

After graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Music Composition, Rachael won the Melbourne Fringe Music Award, the Martin Sims Award, and received critical acclaim at New York Fringe Festival for her contemporary song cycle CITY OF SHADOWS. Since then she has worked with companies such as Black Swan State Theatre Company, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Barking Gecko, Perth Festival and The Last Great Hunt.

Composition and sound design for theatre includes: CITY OF GOLD (Sydney Theatre Company/Black Swan State Theatre Company): IT’S DARK OUTSIDE (The Last Great Hunt); THE BLEEDING TREE (Blue Room Theatre); MARY STUART (Perth Festival); HOUSE, (Barking Gecko/Perth Festival); ANIMAL FARM, YOU KNOW WE BELONG TOGETHER, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, COMALAND (Black Swan State Theatre Company); 8GB OF H*ARDCORE PORNOGRAPHY (Griffin Theatre Company). 

Installation design includes: VESPERS (Fremantle Biennale); BLACK MASS (Perth Institute of Contempory Art); IMMEMORIAL (They Crypt Gallery London/Lumens Studios); WINTER FEAST 2018-2022 (Dark Mofo); MUSEUM OF WATER (Perth Festival); and LIKE EMBRACING ICE (Fremantle Arts Centre). 

Rachael was awarded a Department of Culture and The Arts Performing Arts Fellowship in 2017.  She won the Performing Arts WA Award for Best Music for LET THE RIGHT ONE IN with BSSTC.  Residencies include Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Proximity Festival, Lumen Studios Italy and The Arctic Circle.  She was also Besen Fellow at Malthouse Theatre.  

Rachael was Prelude Composer in Residence at Gallop House, Western Australia, where she wrote her first solo album HYMNS FOR THE END OF TIMES which was performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for the 2021 Perth Festival to critical acclaim. Rachael recently returned from Sweden, where she is collaborated with Maxine Doyle (Punchdrunk) and Es Devlin on HERE NOT HERE for Gothenburg Opera Dance Company.