MEET THE COMPOSERS

Ju Lia Potter

Julia Potter is an emerging Sydney-based composer. Inspired to write music surrounding the human existence and experience, Julia seeks to create music which transports the listener to a suspended reality and moment in time.

In 2021 Julia partook in Ensemble Offspring Hatched Academy, and this year has been accepted into the Omega Ensemble CoLAB Program for young composers. Her previous work has been performed by The Penny Quartet, Syzygy Ensemble, The Australian Youth Orchestra, The Melbourne University Symphony Orchestra, ANAM and the Arcis Quartet.

Her music for documentary Acts for the Invisible was featured at Sydney Film Festival and Mardis Gras Film Festival.

In 2021 Julia graduated with a Masters degree at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) specialising in film music composition, studying with Cameron Patrick. In 2018, Julia completed a Bachelor of Music with Honours at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, studying with Stuart Greenbaum, Elliot Gyger and Katy Abbott Kvasnica.

In 2019 Julia was the recipient of the Melbourne Recital Centre/Melbourne Conservatorium of Music graduate commission and 2017 recipient of the Esther Rofe Composition Award.

Stay Close

This piece is both a request to and a promise from me to my loved ones; a request and promise for them to stay close.

As I progress through my 20s, I witness my friends and loved ones growing alongside me. I see them pursuing goals, facing challenges (expected and unexpected), embracing change and travelling far and wide. It is a joy to watch and to celebrate each milestone. However accompanied by this joy comes a bittersweet feeling. It is difficult to see friends and family move away to new and unknown places. I have grieved for my friends as they have moved away and as I myself have done the same.

Stay Close attempts to encapsulate my feelings as the nature of my relationships stretch and reform. It contains moments of tension, despair and strangeness but also moments of excitement, triumph and, by the closing of the piece, peacefulness.

I’d like to dedicate this piece to my family and friends; stay close to me.