Katia Beaugeais is an Australian-French saxophonist and composer based in Sydney. Beaugeais won the prestigious International Society for Contemporary Music Young Composer Award. Beaugeais’ solo saxophone and string orchestra music were the main theme tunes for ABC New Waves and ABC Breakfast radio four years in a row.
In November 2024, Beaugeais’ new saxophone orchestra piece Elise Hall – We Thank You! received its world premiere performance by women saxophonists at the Paris International Elise Hall Tribute Festival, followed by ten other countries.
In June 2025, the UK premiere will be performed by Professor Kyle Horch and the Royal College of Music Saxophone Orchestra in London.
ABC Classic album releases include: 3 Women of Note CDs, Best of Australian Classical Music, and Beaugeais’ ABC saxophone album, Breath by Breath, named after her circular breathing soprano sax piece. Recently, she was featured on BBC Radio, UK Women Composers’ International Global Forum, Australian Chamber Orchestra’s worldwide playlist celebrating “incredible female artists”, selected out of 350 submissions for USA’s String National Conference, and her latest article on circular breathing was the “Single Reed Doctor” feature in the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain magazine.
Beaugeais’ music is regularly performed worldwide. Highlights include: Elise Hall Saxophone Orchestra in Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Thailand International Double Reeds Festival, London’s Royal College of Music Saxophone Orchestra and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Boulevard des Productions French TV, Colonel Higuchi and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Central Band, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Zagreb Biennale, Texas Woman’s University Wind Symphony, Scotland, France, Croatia and Las Palmas World Sax Congress, NASA Sax Congress, University of South Carolina, Australian Youth Orchestra, Didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton, Royal Australian Navy Band, and her own 40 min. saxophone concerto performed by Beaugeais herself and recorded by the ABC.
In 2021, Katia Beaugeais graduated with a PhD in Composition on the dual role of a composer-performer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
In November 2024, Beaugeais’ new saxophone orchestra piece Elise Hall – We Thank You! received its world premiere performance by women saxophonists at the Paris International Elise Hall Tribute Festival, directed by Nicolas Prost and Saxiana French Association, followed by ten other countries.
Photo credit: Bridget Elliot