Peter Knight

Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter Peter Knight's practice thrives in the spaces between categories, between genres and between cultures.

From 2013 to 2023 Peter was the Artistic Director and co-CEO of the Australian Art Orchestra. He commissioned over 100 compositions and collaborations from a diverse range of international and Australian artists, including Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, Nicole Lizée, Kim Myhr and Senyawa. He also composed for and performed in the company. He premiered works such as The Plains, Diomira and Fresh Water Salt Water, and presented the orchestra at festivals and venues in more than a dozen countries, among them Jazzfest Berlin, the London Jazz Festival and Jazztopad Wrocław. During his tenure the AAO won awards including four AMC Art Music Awards, the Albert H Maggs Composition Prize and numerous ARIA nominations.

Peter has maintained an active solo career and built an international reputation as an innovator extending the possibilities of his instrument. His work weaves acoustic preparations and extended techniques into electroacoustic processing through laptop, vintage delays, tape machines and pedals. His acclaimed solo albums include Fish Boast of Fishing, Shadow Phase and, most recently, For a Moment the Sky Knew My Name, out on the ROOM40 label. Foxy Digitalis wrote that Knight "bends time into a single moment of reflection, of life unfolding across generations, his trumpet casting long melodic lines across the frame like nets thrown into deep water."

Peter's current touring projects include Hand to Earth, featuring Yolŋu songkeepers Daniel and David Wilfred with Sunny Kim and Aviva Endean (MOKUY, Ŋurru Wäŋa, ROOM40). The group recently won the Creative Australia Asia Pacific Arts Inspire Award and has performed at the Barbican with Shabaka, Lincoln Centre New York, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin and the opening of the 2026 Sydney Biennale. Other current projects include a collaboration with Indonesian duo Senyawa (The Prey and the Ruler, ROOM40), his ARIA-nominated jazz quartet TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read, Earshift), and Residual, his long-standing duo with Vietnamese-Australian musician Anh Nguyễn Dũng. He has appeared as soloist with the Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, performing Paul Grabowsky's Wata, and recently composed and arranged music for the Australian Chamber Orchestra's quartet collaboration with Hand to Earth, premiered at Pier 2/3, Sydney.

Peter composes for film. With Warren Ellis he wrote the score for the Australian feature Kid Snow (dir. Paul Goldman), which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival. He also scored the Portuguese feature Longe da Estrada (dir. Hugo Vieira da Silva), premiered at Lisboa FilmFest, and has worked with filmmaker Amiel Courtin-Wilson. Other screen work includes Rick Charnoski's 911, commissioned by the Melbourne International Film Festival, and Double Vision with the Dogmilk collective, premiered with live performance at ACMI. Most recently he scored the short film Slow Hours (dir. Theo McMahon), which premiered at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival.

He works in contemporary theatre, most notably with acclaimed director Tamara Saulwick (Chamber Made). Together they have made five works that blur the boundaries between theatre and music. These have toured to major international festivals, won three Green Room Awards and received a Helpmann Award nomination.