Who We Are

Evan J Lawson (b.1989, he/him) is one of Australia’s leading queer artists, working at the forefront of contemporary culture as composer, curator, and conductor, chiefly as artistic director of Forest Collective.

Hailed by Bridget Davies in The Age that Lawson’s innovative musical imaginations...are striking… Evan is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has studied with Benjamin Northey, Richard Gill, Johanna Selleck, David Aronson (at the Wiener Staatsoper), Alim Shakh and Matthias Pintscher (at Grafenegg Festival) who has said that his music is serene, deep, it's even breathing the heritage of Mahler.

Evan was composer-in-residence at Billilla Mansion in 2015 and has completed developing artist programs with the Malthouse Theatre, Grafenegg Festival and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Alexander O’Sullivan of Partial Durations has said Lawson's music is, bar to bar beautiful.

Evan has performed across Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA, working with a variety of companies, such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Moravska Filharmonie, Forest Collective, ANAM Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Geelong Symphony Orchestra, Density 512, Gertrude Opera, Performance Space, Ranters Theatre, Prismatx Ensemble, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Australian Children's Choir and Syzygy Ensemble, for Melbourne International Arts Festival, Metropolis New Music Festival, Grafenegg Festival, Austria, Dublin Theatre Festival, Ireland, Sydney’s Mardi Gras, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Melbourne Recital Centre, Malthouse Theatre, CarriageWorks, Jinji Lake Concert hall, China, Midsumma Festival, the Universities of Melbourne, Paris, Texas & Oregon and SoundSCAPE New Music Festival, Italy.

As opera conductor Evan has performed Benjamin Britten's Curlew River (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.), Bizet’s Carmen (In Good Company, Greg Eldridge, dir.), Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea (Gertrude Opera, Yarra Valley Opera Festival, Gale Edwards AM dir.), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.) and his own two operas Calypso (Forest Collective) and Orpheus (Forest Collective, Density 512 & Prismatx Ensemble).

Evan’s practice goes beyond the standard concert hall to encompass various collaborative works including Nico with Cabaret sensation Danielle Asciak, the premiere of his dance-opera Orpheus with choreographer Ashley Dougan, fluttering hearts // thinking machines by pop music doyen Addison, Australian premiere of Holcombe Waller's Requiem Mass: LGBT (Mardi Gras, Performance Space and Carriageworks) and Come Away with Me to the End of the World (by Adriano and Raymondo Cortese for Ranters Theatre, Malthouse Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival).

Evan has worked with some of the world's finest artists, including Sir Andrew Davis, Brett Dean, Fabian Russell, Christopher Hogwood, Jan Willem de Vriend, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Tan Dun, Marshall McGuire, Tony Arnold, Gale Edwards and Warwick Stengards.

Website: www.evanjlawson.com

Ashley Dougan - Artistic Associate

Ashley Dougan is a dancer and choreographer based in Melbourne, Australia. Having completed his BFA (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts, and undertaking supplemental study at the CND in Paris, he is now focusing on his personal body of work. With a strong classical and contemporary background, and experience in physical theatre and aerial choreography, he has worked with choreographers such as Adam Wheeler, Kate Denborough, and Stuart Shugg. Ashley has performed at Darwin Festival, Melbourne Festival and Sydney Festival, and has been involved with shows in both Melbourne and Sydney Fringe Festivals. He has also worked with Tracks Dance Company, Stalker Theatre, Opera Australia. He choreographed and performed in Forest Collective's sold-out ballet-opera Orpheus, and most recently presented his full-length work Seeing Red. Amongst this, he maintains a keen interest in youth dance, movement invention, and dance on film.

Jasmin Bardel - Executive Admin

Jasmin’s interest in the creative arts began as a child, playing music, tap dancing, and enjoying painting and pottery. Jasmin has a Masters of Art Curatorship from University of Melbourne, with a thesis on Curating Contemporary Melbourne Street Art, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from Monash University. During her Bachelor degree, Jasmin was selected to complete a semester of her degree in Prato, Italy.
Jasmin enjoys sharing art and encouraging understanding about art through conversation and observation, volunteering in the past with Melbourne Art Fair, Screen Space, and writes for Australian Arts Review (artsreview.com.au). In addition to her administration role at Forest Collective, Jasmin has co-curated Shared Experiences for the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Festival and curated visual art in the successful multi arts performance installation Shared Lines, also 2013.
Jasmin was Office Manager at multicultural music organisation The Boite, and is currently a freelance arts and cultural manager, with an interest in diasporic cultures in the age of technology and global communicative ease, and hopes to keep supporting emerging and early career artists.