Cat Hope is a classically trained flautist, self-taught vocalist, experimental bassist, composer and artistic director of Decibel new music ensemble. Her music is conceptually driven, using graphic scores, acoustic /electronic combinations and digital scores. Her music has been discussed in books such as Hidden Alliances (Schimmana, 2019), Sonic Writing (Magnusson, 2019), Loading the Silence (Kouvaris, 2013), Women of Note (Appleby, 2012), Sounding Postmodernism (Bennett, 2011) as well as periodicals such as Gramophone, The Wire, Limelight, and Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Her 2017 monograph CD ‘Ephemeral Rivers’ (Hat[Art]Hut) won the German Record Critics prize that year, when Gramophone magazine called her “one of Australia’s most exciting and individual creative voices.” Cat is Professor of Music at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where she is part of the „DigiScore“ European Research Council project and leader of the music notations research group. She is the co-author of the book Digital Arts – An Introduction to New Media (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cat Hope’s sonic practice focuses on low frequency sound in both literal and conceptual frameworks. She explores systems for creating and reading graphic notations for music that facilitate this interest, including software development as well as new compositions, improvisations, performances and more traditional research outputs. Hope also researches early Australian electronic music, composers such as Giacinto Scelsi and Fausto Romitelli, digital archiving for music, art activism and issues around gender in music.

Cat Hope’s collaboration partner is Georg Hajdu, professor of composition/ theory with a focus on multimedia composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She will be premiering her opera Speechless in conjunction with the Hochschule, as well as working with staff and students at the Hochschule during her stay. She will also compose a range of works for ensembles around Europe.

Cat Hope’s HIAS Fellowship is provided by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the federal and state funds acquired by Universität Hamburg in the framework of its Excellence Strategy.