Sadie Harrison is an Australian UK-based composer known particularly for the sociopolitical aspects of music-making, with several works challenging stereotypes of marginalised peoples – refugees, Afghan women, the deaf, the homeless – celebrating their creativity and individuality with powerful expressions of musical solidarity.
For several years, she also pursued a secondary career as an archaeologist, specialising initially in the Irish Neolithic, and latterly in the prestige pottery of the Continental Bronze Age (also appearing on Channel 4’s Time Team). Reflecting her interest in the past, many of Harrison’s compositions have been inspired by the traditional musics of old and extant cultures with cycles of pieces based on the folk music of Afghanistan (as Composer-in-Association with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music), Lithuania, the Isle of Skye, the North Caucasus and the UK.
Harrison’s music has been performed and broadcast internationally with works released to critical acclaim on Naxos, NMC, Cadenza, Sargasso, Toccata Classics, BML, Divine Art/Métier and Clarinet Classics. Her music is published by University of York Music Press, with several works on the ABRSM and Trinity Examination lists.