Kym Dillon is a composer; arranger; orchestrator, pianist and conductor, who is currently based in Melbourne and Geelong. Starting out her career as a jazz pianist, Kym’s interest soon turned to composition, and her work now regularly spans multiple genres and areas of musical practice.

She completed a Bachelor of Music Performance Honours in composition at the Victorian College of the Arts, studying under such teachers as Anthony Lyons, Mark Pollard, and John McCaughey. She was awarded the ‘Beleura Sir George Tallis Award’ from the ‘Friends of the VCA’ for her work in the course in 2009; and the ‘Beleura John Tallis Award’ in 2010. She composed and performed two original jazz works for the VCA Improvisation Series in 2009, for which her ensemble won the ‘Athanaeum Prize’.

Kym has had original works commissioned by such groups as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Astra Chamber Music Society, and Musica Viva; and her music has been performed in Canada, the U.K., North America, Canada, Romania and Italy. Her work is often inspired by reflections on the nature of imagination and creation — what it means to create and what our creative compulsion says about us.

Kym has frequently collaborated with the choreographer and artist Jude Walton, including performing solo piano compositions for her show Heide (2014) and Heide II (2015) at the Heide Museum of Contemporary art; conducting compositions for brass quartet for her show The Drill Hall Project (2017); and performing a collection of serial and improvised piano works for her show Nadja-Léona (2018).

In 2017 Kym was commissioned by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Box Hill to compose a cantata for chamber orchestra, choir and soloists celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran reformation, with the work being given a repeat performance in 2018. 2019 saw Kym collaborate with BK Opera to transform the intense orchestral score of Béla Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle into the radically different style of synthesiser-laden 80’s electronica, with her work on the project described by the review site whatdidshethink.com as ‘great genius’. In 2021 she was commissioned by the City of Greater Geelong to compose a work for the Sonus Ensemble which responded to iconic sites of the local area, a project which incorporated a variety of media and which was premiered at the Geelong Art Gallery.

As a pianist she often performs in her own chamber works, such as her Sonata for Piano (2019), and Sonata for Flute and Piano (2021), but also regularly in jazz/contemporary contexts. She also frequently enjoys playing as an accompanist to vocalists, such as in 2015 where she performed on piano as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival show, Larry Paradiseo and the Fabulous Dame Farrar. She also regularly performs on piano with the Georgia Brooks Swingtet, a group that specialises in revitalising classic swing-era jazz tunes.

Kym is also a conductor for the charity Creativity Australia’s ‘With One Voice’ program, which seeks to connect people from different walks of life through community singing. As part of this role she conducts three choirs (Geelong, Altona Meadows and Ashburton)each week, having led them to perform at venues such as the Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, and the Monash carols in Jells Park.

Residing in Geelong, Kym now juggles work as a composer, arranger, theory/compositon teacher, tutor, performer, conductor and writer, and is currently studying a Masters of Composition at Melbourne University under the supervision of Elliot Gyger and Melody Eötvös.