Johanna’s compositions have been performed by internationally renowned artists including in Italy, Albania, Malta, Israel, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Chile, and the USA.  In Australia, her compositions have been performed by the Melbourne, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.  As a flautist, Johanna particularly enjoys chamber music and working in collaboration with long-time friend and harpist Jacinta Dennett in the Llÿre Duo (flute and harp) and the Petyan Quartet (flute, harp, viola, and yidaki)  featuring First Nations artist Amos Roach. Johanna performs regularly as a soloist at Melbourne Composers’ League concerts. She has been a featured composer and performer at many prestigious Australian and international events including at the PUENTE Festival Interoceánico (Chile, 2023); the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival (Australia, 2023), and the Music at McClelland Concert Series (Australia, 2024).  Orchestras she has performed with include the Victorian State Concert Orchestra, Ballarat Symphony Orchestra (soloist with Jacinta Dennett in Mozart's flute and harp concerto), Maroondah Symphony Orchestra (soloist in the flute concerto by Ibert),  Melbourne Mandolin Orchestra (soloist in Capricron Light by Michelle Nelson), Melbourne Music Theatre, Babirra Players, Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Catchment Players, Sandringham Light Opera, and Savoy Opera. Chamber ensembles include Baroque and Beyond, Ensemble Lunaire, and the Austral Indigo Quartet. Johanna was privileged and honoured to have been a member of Ensemble Zauberflöte under the direction of Thomas Pinschof – a valued influence in her flute playing. 

Johanna is a represented composer at the Australian Music Centre. She is currenlty a committee member of the Victorian Flute Guild, the Melbourne Composers' League, and the Dandenong Ranges Music Council.  She has also worked as a music critit for the Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper and has written reviews and articles for various magazines including Limelight.  Johanna is also passionate about landcare work and volunteers wtih the Knox Environment Society, Friends of the Glenfern Green Wedge, and the Green Wedges Coalition. 

Johanna’s research interests include Australian music and cultural history, semiotics, multidisciplinarity, multimodal analysis, creativity and collaboration, and practice-led research. She is a regular presenter at international conferences, most recently at the University of Surrey for the Second Biennial International Conference of Music and the University (UK) in April 2024. In December, she gave a paper at the 47th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. Publishers of her research include Cambridge Scholars Press, Lexington Books, Palgrave Macmillan, Hollitzer Verlag Vienna, and an upcoming publication by Bloomsbury (New York). Publishers of her music include Lyrebird Press, the Australian Music Centre, Reed Music, Allans Music, Hal Leonard, and the Centre for Studies in Australian Music. Her recordings appear on labels including Move Records (Melbourne), Tall Poppies (Sydney), Albany (USA), and Navona (USA). Johanna’s awards for composition include the Percy Grainger Prize, the Albert Maggs Composition Award, and the ANZVS Viola Composition Competition.  In 2023, she completed a creative residency at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with First Nations’ artist, Amos Roach. In February 2025, she will present the work of Australian composer Brendan Colbert at the 37th Asian Composers’ League Festival in Kawaskai, Japan.  

COMPOSITIONAL PHILOSOPHY 

I liken my approach to composition to the way I relate to other elements that are fundamental to our existence. For example, I do not limit myself to one ‘taste’ or type of food but enjoy exploring many different cuisines including from different countries. To say I only listen to or compose in one style, e.g., atonal music, would be like limiting myself to one type of food. Similarly, in my enjoyment of nature, I do not limit my enjoyment to one particular tree or style of landscape but delight in experiencing many different landscapes and types of vegetation. I apply the same approach to my enjoyment of music. 

Silver Street Bridge, Eltham by Anne Selleck

Johanna Selleck and Natalya Vagner

Melbourne Composers' League concert,

20 April 2024

Alan Holley, Peter Sheridan, Andriàn Pertout, Johanna Selleck, Howard Dillon, and Wendy Suiter at the Australian National Flute  Convention,

Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 30 September, 2023

Johanna Selleck, Amos Roach, William Vyvyan Murray,

and Jacinta Dennett, Tempo Rubato, 26 May 2022

THIS SITE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I acknowledge the sovereignty of the traditional owners of this land, the Wurrundjeri people of the Kulin Nations, and I pay respect to their elders past, present, and emerging

Johanna Selleck is a composer, musicologist, and flautist. Born in 1959, she grew up in Eltham, an outer suburb of Melbourne.  The bush setting of her childhood and her current home in Upper Ferntree Gully have been formative influences in her creative outlook, which links themes of the environment closely with her approach to composition. Johanna is indebted to her first music teacher, Philip Leenman, who instilled a lasting love of the flute. After completing a BA (majoring in philosophy and criminology) and a BMus, Johanna completed a MMus and PhD (2007) at the University of Melbourne studying under Professors Kerry Murphy and Brenton Broadstock.  She taught at the University for twenty years and is currently an honorary fellow.  She also gained AMusA and LMusA diplomas in musicianship and flute. She currently teaches flute and composition at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne.