Jen Anderson
Composer
Jen has earned an international reputation as a composer and improvising violinist. With a strong classical training background and many years of professional performance improvising with numerous bands, she has also composed music for film, television, theatre and dance. Jen has enjoyed national success with her score and live performance of string quartet music to the silent film Pandora's Box, and further national and international success with her score for the silent film The Sentimental Bloke. Jen and her band The Larrikins accompanied the screening of the film at several prestigious screen events including the London International Film Festival, Pordenone Silent film Festival (Italy), Telluride Film Festival (Colorado USA), Tokyo Film Festival (Japan) and Chungmuro Film Festival (Seoul, Korea).
As a composer for film and television her many credits include Hunt Angels (documentary feature film, 2006) The Goddess of 1967, Simone De Beauvoir's Babies (ABC television mini-series), and the silent movies Pandora's Box and The Sentimental Bloke.
As a live performer on violin Jen has toured and recorded with many of Australia’s best known rock, folk and country artists, including the Black Sorrows (89-93), Weddings Parties Anything (93-98), Tim Rogers (You Am I), Tiddas, Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter, and the Waifs. She has produced and/or engineered albums for Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter, Tim Rogers and The Waifs, along with five CD’s of her own work; The Sentimental Bloke. (silent film score highlights) Pandora's Box, (silent film score highlights - string quartet), Seek (pop EP), Silent Catalyst (instrumental piano and violin music), and The Goddess of 1967 (soundtrack for feature film)
For the past 10 years Jen has expanded her musical interests, working with people from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds, resulting in projects such as recording a CD of traditional songs with Sudanese refugee women in Melbourne (‘Old songs in a New Country’), and workshopping hip hop songs with young indigenous women in the East Kimberley region of WA.
In June 2017 Jen released a recording of the full length score of Pandora’s Box as a DVD, and is currently writing a multidimensional work for silent film, physical theatre and live music performance entitled Driven to Distraction.Jen regularly performs live with highly acclaimed indigenous artist Archie Roach and she produced his most recent album, Dancing with my Spirit (2018).
She is currently composing music for a feature length documentary entitled The Show Must Go On, a story about mental health issues in the entertainment industry.