Henry Gell

Henry Gell is an emerging composer living in Lutruwita/Tasmania, studying a double degree in music and geography. They have written pieces inspired by such diverse influences as fluvial geomorphology, the sounds and semantics of language, and the dynamic nature of waves and tides. Much of their work manipulates and recontextualises the familiar sounds of local birdsong to draw upon audiences’ collective memories and create an accessible way in to contemporary music. They have had the immense fortune to be mentored in these endeavours by Maria Grenfell, Brian West, Karlin Greenstreet-Love, Holly Harrison, Thomas Misson, and others.

The most meaningful part of Henry’s practice is collaboration with creatives and performers. Their works have been performed by Ensemble Offspring, the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra, Hobart Society of Recorder Players, Tasmanian Medical Orchestra, and Hedberg Ensemble. Henry’s work has been recognised with the 2025 Sir Victor Burley Classical Music Prize and 2023 Susan Williams Prize for TCE Music, as well as by selection as the Tasmanian representative in ASME’s 2023 Young Composer’s Project. In addition to their work as a composer, Henry is active as a performer. They were also secretary of the Student Music Collective for 2025, during which they curated CLARINETOMANIA, a concert of new music for the clarinet. Moving forward, Henry hopes to experiment with interactive and place-based modes of performance and consider how effective science communication could be embedded in their practice to increase a shared public knowledge of, and joy in, our planet’s systems and processes.