About
Lee Bradshaw is an Australian composer whose work spans opera, orchestral, chamber, and cross-genre projects. His opera Zarqa Al Yamama (2024) was the first Western opera sung in Arabic and the first opera ever staged in Saudi Arabia, a landmark production featuring Dame Sarah Connolly, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno and the Dresdner Sinfoniker. His Requiem “For Those Left Behind” (2024) will be performed at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in September (2025), and is the first Australian classical work premiered in Egypt, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Australian–Egyptian diplomatic relations.
According to The Standard (UK), Bradshaw is “a composer with an ear for both scale and intimacy, unafraid to take on historic subjects with contemporary resonance.”
His music has been performed internationally by Dame Sarah Connolly, violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Harriet Krijgh, Quartetto Energie Nove, the Flinders String Quartet, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Ivan Vukčević, Amira Medunjanin, and others. Beyond classical composition, Bradshaw leads the progressive rock project Horizon, whose 2025 album release includes the final studio performances of Noiseworks guitarist Stuart “Chet” Fraser, alongside Brett Garsed and Angus Burchall of the John Farnham Band.
Writing on Bradshaw’s music, OperaWire described it as “striking for its fusion of tradition with modernity, moving between intimacy and grandeur with clarity of voice.”
