Student Composer in Residence 2026 – Leah Blankendaal
Women have made art about the realities of domesticity for decades; however, common perceptions of rituals at the heart of domestic life remain stubbornly mundane
Leah Blankendaal is an award-winning musician whose language is "kind, immersive and thoughtful,” and offers “us space to breathe and to be.” Composition collaborators include Quince Ensemble (USA), Duo Alterity (USA), Rubiks Collective (VIC), Luminescence Chamber Singers (ACT), Soundstream (SA) and Tura New Music and STRUT Dance (WA). She has received the ABC Classic Commissioning Fund, APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund, Peggy Glanville Hicks Commission, the Australian Music Centre Classical: Next Fellowship, and the 2025 Momentum Plus Orchestral Initiative.
Leah writes of her 2026 project: "Women have made art about the realities of domesticity for decades; however, common perceptions of rituals at the heart of domestic life remain stubbornly mundane. Domestic labourers are facilitators of others: reliable, nurturing and two dimensional. Their rituals are necessary but not extraordinary, important but not brilliant.
As composer in residence at the Grainger Museum I will explore the patterns and details of domestic rituals using a combination of text, domestic objects (e.g. cutlery, crockery, etc) and composed sound to create a new composition for solo string player and electronics. Drawing on words written by poet and creative Ella Grainger, and blending this text with my own intricate sound world, this work will examine the intersection of domesticity necessity and the act of creation, holding this duality in all of its messy complexity. As in the Gaze and her exhibition, this work will question what happens when the experiences of women are no longer depicted through the gaze of others, but are permitted the right to self-definition.