Bandt was born in Geelong, Victoria. Her father Lewis Bandt was a car designer and notable for designing the first ute.
Described as one of the most individual presences in Australian music,[1] Bandt is an internationally acclaimed sound artist, composer, researcher and performer. Trained as a school teacher, Bandt went on to study chance music and completed her master's degree in 1974 at Monash University with a thesis on the work of John Cage[2] and later completed her PhD in 1983 also at Monash.[3] In 1977 Bandt and Martin Harris created a sound installation, Winds and Circuits which fed audio into television signals to create electronic visual patterns.[4] Since that time she pioneered interactive sound installations, sound sculptures, and created sound playgrounds, spatial music systems, and some 40 sound installations worldwide.[5]
A pioneer of interactive sound sculpture in Australia, she has exhibited in many Australian city and regional centres, including her work Sound PlaygroundinBrunswick, Melbourne in 1981.[1] Making use of electronics, tapes and interactive playback systems, Bandt's compositions also feature environmental sounds and unusual instrument combinations.[1][6] Bandt performs on a wide variety of instruments including recorders, psaltry, percussion and the tarhu.[7][8] She is a founding member of ensembles LIME, Back to Back Zithers, La Romanesca, Carte Blanche and the Free Music Ensemble.[9]
The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia.[10] It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board.
In 2020 Bandt was awarded the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the APRA Art Music Awards in recognition of her 40-year commitment to inter-disciplinary work.[12]
^Priest, Gail, ed. (2009). "Chapter 10 – Sounding Sight, Space and Bodies: A Survey of Mixed Media Explorations by Gail Priest". Experimental Music – Audio Explorations in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press. pp. 199–200. ISBN9781921410079.
