DAVID PAGE

At the age of 13, David’s musical career began when he released two singles with Atlantic Records, home to artists such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and Roberta Flack.

In the 1980’s, he studied saxophone, voice, composition and song at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at Adelaide University. In 1989, he moved to Sydney and teamed up with his brothers Russell and Stephen, where he first created music for dance, working with The Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre and Sydney Dance Company.

David’s career became intricately linked with Bangarra Dance Theatre when he joined the company as resident composer in 1990. He composed scores for their major works: Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992), Ochres (1995), Ninni (1996), Fish (1997), Skin (2000), Corroboree (2001), Bush (2003), Unaipon/Clan (2004) and Boomerang (2005). He performed with Bangarra at WOMAD concerts in Adelaide and Johannesburg in 1999. In 1997 David was invited by his brother Stephen to compose the musical work Alchemy for The Australian Ballet, which marked the beginnings of his collaboration with Stephen Francis. In 2000, they contributed music to the Opening Ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games and the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and, in 2002, The Sydney Dreaming Festival. He contributed to the Indigenous section of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. David’s most recent music collaboration for dance is Amalgamate for Bangarra and The Australian Ballet with Elena Kats Chernin.

David has also contributed music to television, composing for Heartland, Pride (part of the Seven Deadly Sins series) and Poison for ABC. He wrote the themes for Songlines, Living Black and Pioneers of Love for SBS. He has worked with film directors Pauline Clague, Rima Tamou, Mark Olive and Wesley Enoch on short films such as Round Up, Passing Through, Grace and Saturday Night Sunday Morning, all commissioned by the Australian Film Commission.

Since 1995, David has received four Deadly Sound Awards for Excellence in Music Score, an ARIA nomination for Heartland in 1996, and was given the first Indigenous Artist Award for The Sidney Myer Foundation in 2000. In 2006 "Page 8" picked up a Green Room award for Best New Play. David’s music is represented by Sony Music ATV Publishing Australia.

As an actor David has performed in a number of productions since 1987 including Murras by Eva Johnson; Big Sister by Reg Livermore; and-The Sunshine Club, Fountains Beyond and Cherry Pickers, all directed by Wesley Enoch. David performed Page 8 at Belvoir St Theatre and Brisbane Festival in 2004, followed by a national tour and U.K tour 2006. His film credits include Two Bob Mermaid directed by Darlene Johnson, Oscar and Lucinda directed by Gillian Armstrong and Green Bush directed by Warwick Thornton.