A Conservatorium-trained sonic historian, Sister Ursuline draws on historical anecdotes to create narrative songs: asylum-bound nuns, shape-shifting witches, and iron-willed aristocrats inhabit tales of madness, illness and obsession.

In 2015 she toured North America with New York-based cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, and collaborated alongside Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls and Violent Femmes.

In 2016 she opened for performance artist Betty Grumble’s solo show Grumble, and performed in Christian Wagstaff’s otherworldly installation House of Mirrors at Brisbane Powerhouse.

Her compositions were adapted for Theatre Excentrique’s production of Goya in 2017, in which she performed at the 505 Theatre in Sydney.

These songs were written following an extensive North American tour with US-based cello-rock band Rasputina, who have been at the forefront of alternative cello-centric songwriting since the early 1990s.

Rasputina were the first group to utilise the cello as the sole melodic instrument as an alternative group, and I have largely followed in their stead in my composition style, however as an artist I perform solo, looping the cello parts (3-4 at a time) and singing simultaneously.