About
Violinist and creator Simone Slattery is one of the most versatile and adventurous Australian musicians of her generation. Her performances across multiple genres have been reviewed as “infinitely expressive” (AdelaideNow), “hauntingly beautiful” (SoundsLikeSydney), and “brimming with infectious joy and vitality”(ClassikON). A co-founder of the award-winning Bowerbird Collective, Simone uses her diverse creative toolkit of performance, curation, composition, and sound and visual design to weave new emotional and philosophical connections to the natural world, presenting transdisciplinary knowledge in innovative ways, and engaging with highly diverse audiences.
Simone graduated from the University of Adelaide Elder Conservatorium of Music in 2009 with first class Honours, followed by study at the Australian National Academy of Music. She has attended training programs and mentorships in Australia, Canada, America and throughout Europe. She is the recipient of Fellowships from the Winston Churchill Trust and CreateSA, and in 2018 she was awarded her PhD in music performance with a Dean’s Commendation from the University of Adelaide. Simone has appeared as soloist and chamber musician internationally, and performs regularly in festivals ranging from the Adelaide Festival and the BBC Proms to the Woodford Folk Festival.
In 2017 Simone co-founded the Bowerbird Collective, an arts organisation that tells nature stories and explores links between art and science. To date, the Bowerbird Collective has self-produced 16 national and international tours, more than 250 concerts to locations ranging from Cape York to King Island, 2 regional festivals, 6 CD albums, including 1 ARIA-nominated and 4 No.1 ARIA-charting albums, and 12 major multimedia projects, including: Where Song Began, winner of a Ruby Award; Life on Land’s Edge, winner of an Independent Arts Foundation Award for Innovation; and Kaurna Yarta - The Seasons. Through their projects, the Bowerbird Collective have raised over $120,000 for conservation partners, and in 2024 they were honoured with the APRA AMCOS Luminary Award for SA.
Simone’s compositions have featured in live performance, radio, film, exhibitions and installations, including the Art Gallery of South Australia’s ‘Clarice Beckett: the present moment’ retrospective, and Tourism Australia’s immersive nature experience ‘Australian Geographic: Our Country’. Her creations have been described as “a delicate and beautiful fusion” and “like being sung to by the country”.