Born in Australia and now based in the UK, Lisa Illean composes ‘music that seeps into your consciousness’ (ABC Classic FM). Reflective and compelling, her ‘exquisitely quiet shadows’ (The Sydney Morning Herald) invite contemplation, often exploring unconventional tunings and the phenomena that arise through the interaction of quiet layers. Much of her work combines live and pre-recorded instrumental sound in performance to create “a soundscape unlike any other” (Limelight).

Illean has written widely across orchestral and chamber music, including An acre ringing, still — a “fascinating…intrinsically beautiful but uniquely challenging” twenty-minute work for orchestra and electronics commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra — and Tiding for electric guitar, which has been performed in New York (Time:Spans festival), Witten (Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik), London, Chicago and Cleveland.  

Her music has been presented worldwide, including at Festival Présences (Paris), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Taiwan International Festival of Arts, Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Angelica Festival (Bologna), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Tzlil Meudcan (Tel Aviv), Transit Festival (Leuven) and November Music (S'Hertogenbosch), in venues ranging from Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) to the industrial bays of Sydney's Carriageworks and London's Café Oto. In the U.K., she has worked with Explore Ensemble, GBSR Duo, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia. Other collaborators include Ensemble Intercontemporain (ever-weaver), Trio Accanto/Experimentalstudio des SWR (Tiding II), Juliet Fraser/Explore Ensemble, guitarists Yaron Deutsch, Sean Shibe, Sam Cave and Huw Davies (Tiding), and the London Sinfonietta. 

Many of Illean’s compositions arise out of working with non-tempered tuning systems, playing close attention to sonority, subtly unfolding harmonic forms, auditory phenomena and perspective. In recent years she has oriented her practice as a composer to include making long-form pieces with both performed and pre-recorded material, in close development with one or two others, such as A through-grown earth, made with and for soprano Juliet Fraser. This process incorporates unadorned, ‘everyday’ instruments—often simply made zithers; exploring visual analogies and tactile ways of sketching. She draws on her knowledge of acoustics, tuning and electronics to pose questions about how to combine seemingly disparate musical elements: “To spend time with Lisa Illean’s music is to feed the quiet parts of your soul.” (Limelight).  

Premiered in 2017 by members of the Philharmonia, Januaries for ensemble has since been programmed by seven other ensembles in the U.K., U.S. and Australia. She has also made a number of pieces for voice, including A though-grown earth (2018) for Juliet Fraser and Sleeplessness ... Sails (2018) for Sarah Connolly, premiered at the BBC Proms. Cantor, for soprano and ensemble, was named Instrumental Work of the Year at the 2018 Australian Art Music Awards. 

Illean has maintained strong connections with her birth country, with commissions from Finding Our Voice/Ukaria Cultural Centre and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, as well as projects with Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, and the Australian National Academy of Music; Land’s End, premiered by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson, has been taken up by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Brett Dean, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra of the Australian National Academy of Music. It features on her debut portrait album arcing, stilling, bending, gathering — described as ‘extraordinary stuff’ (The Arts Desk) — released on NMC to wide acclaim. In autumn 2024 Cédric Tiberghien will premiere Sonata in ten parts, Illean's first work for solo piano, commissioned by Wigmore Hall.