


About
Culture Through Sound
Operating since 1987, Tura has been a producer and supporter of new music for over 37 years, collaborating with many of Australia’s cultural institutions, festivals and artists. Widely recognised for its excellence and deep engagement, Tura is a leading organisation for presenting, producing, commissioning, exhibiting, publishing, advocating and supporting Australian cultural development.
Tura is dedicated to creating cultural experiences that connect us in meaningful and surprising ways. We celebrate First Nations by working with and for Indigenous artists and communities through intercultural learning and creative collaboration. Through the art of sound we explore Australian identity and push the boundaries of expression.
Tura supports artistic risk and innovation and creates work that is diverse, unexpected, and daringly bold. Tura works with communities and artists at all levels to foster talent, ambition, and growth. We present uniquely Australian projects nationally and internationally in order to grow cultural exchange and develop connections that affirm Australia’s place in our region and the wider world.


Tos Mahoney
Artistic Director/CEO
Tura’s founder, Artistic Director and CEO, Tos Mahoney has played a pivotal role in the experimental music and cultural sector in Australia over the last 35 years. Starting Evos, the predecessor of Tura in 1987, he has contributed as both an artist/musician and a producer during that time. Tos’s role as Artistic Director, curator and arts advocate has seen the initiation and roll out of a whole raft of projects and programs across Australia and internationally.

Carly Davenport Acker
Executive Director/Producer
Carly is the former CEO of Arts Capital Limited and Director of Ainslie and Gorman Art Centres. With over 25 years’ creative experience working at the intersection of community cultural development, interpretive design, and social justice initiatives, Carly brings a deep understanding of Australian culture and social justice initiatives to the role. She is a Winston Churchill Fellow and has worked in senior positions nationally and internationally, bridging First Nation’s artists, enterprise, and productions with organisations including the National Museum of Australia, FORM, the National Gallery of Australia, the Western Australian Museum and Thylacine Design. Carly is excited to support the team, artists, and partners, to facilitate cultural knowledge, exchange, storytelling and connection.

Tristen Parr
Producer
Originally engaging with Tura as a performer locally and regionally, Tristen now holds the position of Producer. A broad skill set both on and off the stage, Tristen curates, develops, presents, and tours new work and existing programs. He works closely with artists and creatives providing artistic and technical support to fully realise work and create engaging and meaningful experiences.

Rachel Ryan
Communications Manager
Rachel joins Tura as Communications Manager following her experience working in media, advocacy and policy roles. She’s spent her career working to bring attention to issues that matter in the not for profit sector - including the country’s largest community legal centre, and a financial rights NGO. She’s worked across all levels of government in different Australian states. She’s advised the Lord Mayor of Sydney, been a chief of staff to a federal senator, and most recently worked as senior policy adviser for a gender equality team reporting to the WA Minister for Women.

Annika Moses
Project Coordinator
Annika is a sound artist with an eclectic and genre-diverse practice. She performs under the monikers Nika Mo, Great Statue, and contributes to the local ecology of experimental sound both as an individual and as a co-director of Tone List label. Annika facilitates sound-based creative projects with Martu, Gija, Bunuba, Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri language groups.

Gillian Howell
Program Director
Musician, researcher and educator Dr Gillian Howell is a musical connector and changemaker whose creative practice and applied research investigate the social, cultural and political contributions of place-based community music making. Much of her work concerns music in peacebuilding, community dialogue, and self-determination in places recovering from war, crisis, or disaster. Her work has taken her around Australia and the world, including to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Norway, Kosovo and North Macedonia, and she has delivered research consultancies for Save the Children Middle East, Musicians Without Borders, Tura, and the Sri Lanka Norway Music Cooperation. Gillian is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and has been the director of Tura’s Sound FX community music partnership program in the Kimberley since it began in 2017.

Philip Samartzis
Lead Sound Artist
Philip Samartzis is a sound artist, scholar, and curator with a specific interest in the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities. His art practice is based on deep fieldwork where he deploys complex sound recording technology to capture natural, anthropogenic, and geophysical forces. The recordings are used within exhibition and performance to demonstrate the transformative effects of sound within a contemporary art context. He is particularly interested in concepts of perception, immersion, and embodiment to provide audiences with sophisticated encounters of space and place.

Mark Atkins
Co-creator and Director
Acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest didjeridu players, Mark Atkins is also recognised internationally for his collaborative projects with some of the world’s leading composers and musicians. A descendant of Western Australia’s Yamitji people, as well as of Irish/Australian heritage, Mark is known not only for his masterly playing, but also as a storyteller, composer, percussionist, visual artist and instrument maker. Mark has performed alongside and composed with artists such as Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Sinead O’Connor, Philip Glass, Donald Lunney, Ornette Coleman, Peter Sculthorpe, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Gondwana, Jenny Morris, John Williamson, James Morrison, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). He is a founding member of Black Arm Band.

Erkki Veltheim
Co-creator
Erkki Veltheim is an Australian/Finnish composer and performer. His practice spans noise, audiovisual installation, improvisation, notated music, electroacoustic composition, pop arrangements and cross-disciplinary performance. Erkki has been commissioned by the Adelaide Festival, Vivid Festival, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Musica nova Helsink and composed the orchestral works for celebrated Australian indigenous musician Gurrumul's posthumous album Djarimirri.
Robyn Glindemann
Chair
Rod Campbell
Julian Tompkin
Darren Grondal
2022 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards
Tura New Music and Marrugeku for the Sonus 3 Tour of the Kimberley in the category of Excellence in a Regional Area.
2020 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards
Tura New Music and Gillian Howell for the Fitzroy Valley New Music Project in the category of Excellence in a Regional Area.
2018 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards
Tura New Music for 30 years of presenting, producing, commissioning, exhibiting, publishing, advocating and supporting Australian art music in the category of Excellence by an Organisation.
2017 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards
Tura New Music for their outstanding 2016 Regional Program in the category of Excellence by an Organisation in a Regional Area.
2014 APRA/AMC Western Australian State Award
Tura New Music for their outstanding 2013 program in the category of Excellence by an Organisation.
2013 APRA/AMC Art Music Awards
Tura New Music and Australian Art Orchestra Western Australian State Award for the Reef Tour 2012 in the category of Excellence in a Regional Area.
2011 Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Awards Western Australia
Tura New Music and Total E&P Australia State Winners and National Finalists for the Regional Award.
2010 Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Awards Western Australia
Tura New Music and Total E&P Australia National Finalists for the Encouragement Award.
2009 APRA|AMC Classical Music Awards
Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area presented to Tura New Music for Crossing Roper Bar Tour 08.
2009 Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) Awards Western Australia
Tura New Music and Total E&P Australia National Finalists for the City of Brisbane Encouragement Award.
2009 Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize
Composer, Mary Finsterer, was awarded the 2009 Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize for her work, In Praise of Darkness. The work was a co-commission by Western Australia’s Tura New Music and the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2008 APRA|AMC Classical Music Awards
Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation to Australian Music presented to Tura New Music.
2007 Western Australian Business and the Arts Partnerships Awards
Best Small or Medium-sized Partnership Block Branding for their partnership with Tura New Music.
2006 APRA|AMC Classical Music Awards
Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area presented to Tura New Music for Voices Over WA Project 05.
2001 Australian Music Centre Awards
West Australian State Award presented to Tos Mahoney for Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Composition.
We're hiring a business manager.
An opportunity has arisen for a highly capable, organised and values-driven business manager to make their mark in the national arts and cultural development sector.
The ideal candidate has professional experience working with First Nations Peoples, cultures and communities, particularly in remote and regional environments.