James Hazel is a composer, artist and educator based on the unceded Gadigal land of the Eora Nation. Through the lens of social-class embodiments, James’ work interrogates sound, research, linguistics, scores, writing, performance & video. As someone who was born in Western Sydney, and who grew up in an underclass (social-housing) community, James is interested in what it means to work/live within limited socioeconomic means and how this affects participation in the arts and society in general. James’ work is also focused on the class politics of debt, labour and trauma. In this way, James’ work stems from a mix of his lived and research experience. As an advocate in this area, James has commissioned a number of artists from low-SES backrounds through ADSR Zine (which he co-founded with Elia Bosshard and Sonya Holowell. He is also a co-founder of The Opera Company with Joseph Franklin and Tina Stefanou.
Hazel’s work has been presented through Charlotte New Music Festival (USA), INMF (Los Angeles) Arts Incubator III (Seoul), HighSCORE (Contemporary Music Festival, Italy), Performance Space, Carriageworks, Firstdraft, Merrigong Theatre Company, City of Sydney, Ensemble Mise-en (New York), Create NSW, Ensemble Offspring, Hatched Academy (Aus), Sydney Fringe Festival, Gondwana Choirs, Speak Percussion (Melb), Scanlines, Maitland Regional Gallery, Lockup Gallery, NYWF, VIVID (Sydney), March Dance, and the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy. In 2021, James was selected as one of the ABC Top 5 Researchers (Arts) in Australia – a program in partnership with the University of Melbourne and the Australia Council for the Arts. Through this program, he is currently developing a number of projects with the ABC.
