Robbie Avenaim – is an innovative Australian musician, drummer, sound, and installation artist with an international reputation for bold, sonic exploration. Avenaim has been at the forefront of the Australian experimental music scene both as a performer and a curator. Over the past 25 years, Robbie has developed a unique and personal musical language on the drums, combining traditional and extended techniques with physical modification of the Drums. Modifications have included extending the use of the instrument’s, various motorized, robotic, and kinetic percussive mechanisms and in so doing, providing greater scope for both composing and performing. As a musician/composer/instrument builder, Robbie’s musical ideas are inseparable from the instruments he designs and an integral part of the compositional process. After returning from studies in New York with renowned composer John Zorn and observing the vibrant new music N.Y. has to offer, Avenaim was inspired to foster a varied experimental music ecosystem in Australia by co-founding and organizing the legendary WHAT IS MUSIC? Festival, Australia’s premier annual touring showcase of local and international experimental music from 1994-2012 and has since organized many significant sound-based exhibitions, performances, and festivals regionally and overseas, which have been essential for the local growth and international prestige of Australia’s avant-garde musical reputation. Since 2017 Avenaim has developed an experimental music concert series specifically for housebound young people with disabilities, called “Safe in Sound”.