Liza Lim was born in Perth in 1966. She was raised with a Western-style musical upbringing although she has Chinese roots and spent her childhood in Brunei. In Melbourne, she studied composition with Richard David Hames and through him she came into contact with the compositions of Brian Ferneyhough. His early works in particular held a great attraction to her for their ceremonial character, rituals and magic. This fascination expressed itself in 1993 in Orestei, an opera in seven acts after Aeschylos. The ensemble Elision created the piece. Orestei gave the composer international momentum. Since then, she has received several commissions and worked with the Arditti String Quartet, the Ensemble Modern and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Furthermore, Liza Lim worked with artists such as Domenico de Clario and Judith Wright on several installations involving improvisation and video projection. Her recent work is increasingly in line with her Asian background. Her compositions include City of falling angels for ten percussionists (2006), The Compass for orchestra (2006) and the chamber opera The Navigator (2009).