Peter Knight (born 12 March 1965) is an Australian musician, composer and producer. He was the Artistic Director and co-CEO of the Australian Art Orchestra from 2013 to 2023 and founding member of Melbourne group Way Out West., 5+2 Brass Ensemble, and Hand to Earth
He is well known for his solo releases,
'For a Moment the Sky Knew My Name' (2025 Room40),
'Shadow Phase' (2022 Room40), Fish Boast of Fishing (2011) and Allotrope (2012) and composition for theatre in particular with performance maker Tamara Saulwick.
More recently he has composed for film including Paul Goldman's feature Kid Snow which he composed with violinist Warren Ellis (musician).
and Longe da Estrada dir Hugo Vieira da Silva which premiered at LEFFEST in Portugal
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Early life
Peter Knight grew up in Orbost in country Victoria then went to school in Melbourne. He started playing trumpet when he was at primary school.
Career
In collaboration
Knight played trumpet and electric bass, in rock bands through his 20s including Cattletruck, which toured Australia extensively. He also toured and recorded with Big Pig, Frente, Underground Lovers, You Am I Spiderbait and many others.
Knight formed Way Out West with Vietnamese born multi instrumentalist, Dung Nguyen, in 2002 with the intention of exploring jazz as a global language while simultaneously responding to Knight and Nguyen's local neighbourhood, Melbourne's inner west. The band has since released four albums mostly of Knight's compositions. They have won numerous awards and nominations and have played at major music festivals including Montreal, Veneto and Vancouver jazz festivals. Their most recent work '1988' premiered at The Substation in 2022 and was also presented as part of OzAsia Festival in 2023.
Hand to Earth was formed with Indigenous song keepers, Daniel and David Wilfred from Ngukurr NT along with Korean-born vocalist, Sunny Kim (singer), and clarinetist, Aviva Endean. It was originally produced by Australian Art Orchestra when Knight was Artistic Director but in 2023 became an independent ensemble. Since then the group has toured to venues in Australia and around the world including the Barbican where they collaborated with Shabaka and Lincoln Centre in New York . In 2022 it was nominated for an ARIA award for Best World Music Album for its self-titled debut album released on AAO Recordings. In 2023 it released MOKUY on the ROOM40 label run by Lawrence English who also co-produced the record with Knight. In 2025 it released Ŋurru Wäŋa on Room40 co-produced by Knight and English
2000-present: Solo career
In the late 1990s he concentrated on jazz and released his debut album as leader of Peter Knight Quartet in 2001 Between Two Moments.
The album was positively received and the Quartet toured nationally.
He has since regularly released solo work including Fish Boast of Fishing, Allotrope, and Shadow Phase.
2013-2023: Australian Art Orchestra
In 2013 Knight became Artistic Director of Australian Art Orchestra (AAO), following 20 years with the group's founder pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky. Under Knight, the group has pursued a more contemporary direction, collaborating with a number of well respected international composers, including Canadian composer Nicole Lizée and Japanese composer Keiichiro Shibuya. The development of their collaborations with Australian indigenous musicians, and musicians from Asia has continued under Knight's direction receiving critical acclaim. In 2014 and 2022 the group won the AMC Art Music Award for Organisation of the Year at the APRA Awards.
In 2016 Knight won Albert H. Maggs Composition Award for his work Diomira inspired by [Italo Calvino] and his story of the same name. The winning work was commissioned by the Australian Art Orchestra and premiered at the Metropolis New Music Festival in May. This award came in the form of a commission to develop the piece into a full-length concert work. Diomira was released on Hospital Hill in 2021 on an album called Crossed and Recrossed, which also includes a work called The Plains, inspired by author Gerald Murnane which premiered at [Jazztopad] in Poland in 2018 and received positive reviews.
In 2017 Knight performed at the 14th Jazztopad festival in Poland during the Melting Pot concerts.
At OzAsia 2017, Knight curated a concert program for the festival that saw the AAO collaborating with ghuzeng player Mindy Meng, Japanese composer Keiichiro Shibuya, p'ansori singer Bae Il Dong (Korea) and traditional songman from Arnhem Land, Daniel Wilfred.
Projects with Tamara Saulwick
Knight also works extensively with his partner, Tamara Saulwick, who is an internationally renowned performance maker and artistic director of Chamber Made Opera. Together they have made a number of works: Pin Drop, which won a Green Room Award in 2010 for Outstanding Production in Alternative and Hybrid Performance and was nominated for Best Composition and Sound Design. The pair was also commissioned by the ABC to turn this project into a radiophonic work
Pin Drop toured Australia and also played in Glasgow at Tramway in 2014.
Alterwas a performance using a constructed sound and light installation featuring 16 iPads (each participant used an iPad during the performance). The piece was commissioned for the Festival of Live Art by Arts House.
Seddon Archives was a headphone audio walk commissioned by Big West Festival. Endings which won a 2016 Green Room Award and toured through 2017-18 to Canadian Stage (Toronto), Brighton Festival (UK), Dublin Theatre Festival, pUsh Festival Vancouver and On the Boards (Seattle). The ABC commissioned a radiophonic version of Endings in 2016. In 2022 the pair premiered a new work at The Substation in Melbourne. My Self In That Moment, made with Chamber Made, is an audio-visual work for 49 tablets and live voice (Jessica Aszodi and Tina Stefanou alternately). The work, "takes a dystopian view of the lost soul of the self in the digital age"
Academic achievements
In 2003, Knight was awarded the Alan C. Rose Memorial Fund Project Scholarship. In 2004, the Keith and Elizabeth Travelling Fellowship. In 2006 he received a Myer Foundation grant for new sound installation work with Double Venturi.
In 2007, he received a Griffith University full scholarship for doctoral studies in composition and a Tom and Isobel Rolston Scholarship Banff Centre for the Arts.
Knight holds an MMus Master in Music Performance from University of Melbourne (VCA) and is also a Doctor of Musical Arts, which was awarded by Queensland of Conservatorium Griffith University QCGU. In 2013 he was awarded QCGU Alumnus of the Year.
In 2013, he was granted the Australia Council Music Fellowship (for 2013/14).
In 2014 Knight was a Music Omi musician in residence at Omi International Arts Center, Hudson, New York.