About The Resonant Heart
Creating at the intersections of live performance, advocacy and education.
The Resonant Heart (TRH) is a Naarm/Melbourne based collective of CALD and BIPOC women and female identifying artists from around the globe. Championing diverse perspectives, these artists come together to collaborate and create new multi-disciplinary work that celebrates the intimate knowledge of the heart. Crafting intimate creative rituals, the artists express themselves through original and traditional music, multi-lingual poetry and storytelling, film and sound recordings, puppetry, movement and dance.
Their live performance works showcase each artist's individual creative and cultural knowledge, as well as, celebrating the act of collaboration with the other members of the collective and creation of dynamic new work in contemporary Australia. Members of The Resonant Heart also create bespoke, interactive workshops that invite participants to immerse themselves in cultural knowledge through music, movement and various forms of storytelling.
Photo from SSI Homelands 2025 at Sydney Opera House, 2025 (Courtesy of Bruno Stefani)
Nela Trifković
vocals, frame drum
Nela Trifković is a Bosnian-Australian musician and interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes original and traditional music, theatre and performance making. Nela came to Australia in 1996 and studied music and multi-disciplinary performance making at WAAPA and VCA where she completed her Philosophy Doctorate in 2013.Over time, Nela has worked in the areas of composition, musical direction, performance, vocal and instrumental coaching, as well as, performance in independent Australian theatre and in various collaborative projects with film, dance, installation and performance artists in Australia, USA, Europe and Asia. Her personal performance work explores the poetics and reconstruction of ruptured heritage and identity in a new place through interpretations of traditional and original music. This creative exploration is shared across the different ensembles and collectives she has instigated over the past decade including: SARAY Iluminado; SARAY Iluminado Femme; The Resonant Heart Collective and the new upcoming work Suptilna Sila / Subtle Power. Nela loves connecting for collaboration, but also broader support of and interaction with other artists’ work so do reach out!
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Sydney Opera House 2025
ELNAZ SHESHGELANI
dance, movement, shadow puppetry and dramaturgy
Elnaz Sheshgelani is a writer, theatre maker, puppeteer and performance artist whose work revives the pre-Islamic form of Naghali, the most ancient surviving form of Persian dramatic performance. Having completed a PhD thesis that explored reconstructing this ancient art form, she makes theatre that is a synthesis of different perspectives, fascinated by the way visual art intersects with installation, performing art and puppetry. Her performances are immersive, whole body sensory experiences that utilise poetry, the rhythm of language and the moving body. Her work magnifies the Persian aesthetic and culture. Her research examines ancient illustrations and creates puppets in their likeness, bringing this historic style to life.
Photo by Gerri Mifsud, Riverside Parramatta 2025
IRINE VELA
vocals, lute, frame drum
Irine is a multifaceted arts worker - a director, composer, musician, sound designer, librettist, producer and teaching artist. Born to refugee and immigrant parents of mixed faiths – Muslim and Orthodox, resulted in an arts practice and body of work that acknowledges and celebrates the tensions and vitality that diverse and ghettoised voices and forms bring to the Australian arts. She has collaborated with many of Australia’s finest performers, writers, directors and theatre companies. She was a founding ensemble member of the seminal company Melbourne Workers Theatre. Her work with Brunswick Womens Theatre and Canto Coro grew her respect for community arts. Her role as producer and artistic director for Outer UrbanProjects has resulted in strong programming and many unique productions including 'Poetic License', Melbourne Writers Festival (2014), Darebin Arts (2015) fortyfivedownstairs (2017); 'Grand DiVisions – A Moved Urban Cantata', Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Festival (2015), Vessel Arts Centre Melbourne (2017) Melbourne Fringe and the The Audition (2019) LaMama.
Other notable collaborations and productions include Anthem for the 2019-2020 Melbourne, Sydney and Perth Festivals, 'Who's Afraid of the Working Class, ‘Do Not Go Gentle' and the music drama '1975-A Populist Opera' for which she also wrote the libretto. Her choral opera 'Little City' was acclaimed by both music and theatre critics and garnered her an Award from the Australian Music Centre for Best Composition by an Australian Composer. She is also the recipient of the Tropfest film award for Best Original Score. She was awarded a 2007 State Library fellowship to research and create the multimedia music drama 'Australia in Danger - A Slide Night'. She is a founding member of 'the haBiBis'. Their CD Intoxication received an ARIA award for Best World Music Album. She also performs with Saray Iluminado. Her film and television credits include: 'Head On' (feature film), 'Remembering Country' (documentary drama SBS), and the mini-series 'The Slap' (ABC). She received the 2012 APRA Screen Music Award for Best Soundtrack Album.
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Sydney Opera House 2025
VAHIDEH EISAEI
Vocals, qanun, frame drum
Vahideh Eisaei is an Iranian-Australian artist, qanun player, and composer based in Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Tehran University and a Master of Music from the University of Western Australia. Since moving to Australia, she has combined Persian music with contemporary ideas to create a unique and personal body of work. Her performances span Europe and Australia, and her compositions draw on Persian poetry and music using instruments such as qanun, cello, ud, and clarinet. Her recent work Love's Universe is Inside You, commissioned by Playking Productions and performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre, featured her as both composer and scriptwriter in collaboration with director Michael Kantor. Vahideh’s projects include The Audition with Outer Urban Projects and La Mama, where she created and performed the music, and Lullaby, where she wrote five pieces for cello, qanun, and ud. She received an Australia Council grant to develop The Quintet with The Letter String Quartet, a rare composition for Persian qanun in an Australian setting.
She is a member of the Resonant Heart Collective, which presents original works and songs in many languages, and founder of Daftar Aval Trio, an ensemble blending storytelling with qanun, ud, and cello. Their Melbourne and Mona performances have drawn sold-out audiences.Alongside her music, Vahideh works with multicultural organisations to support migrant and refugee communities.
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Immigration Museum Melbourne 2025
Kelly Dowall
vocals, woodwind, frame drum
Kelly is a multi-instrumentalist with a rich history of collaborating with diverse artists. Following a degree in Music at the University of Queensland, her deep interest in Middle Eastern and Balkan musical traditions has taken her to Greece and Turkey for further study of clarinet and ney-flute. Recently she has begun a sonic exploration of a part of her own heritage, weaving taonga puoro and found objects into her musical practice. Kelly has performed and recorded with many contemporary and traditional music groups and projects over her musical career, recently including ‘Saray Iluminado’, ‘Love’s Universe is Inside You’, ‘Gelareh Pour’s Garden’ and ‘Love, Always Love’.
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Immigration Museum Melbourne 2025
SARITA MCHARG
vocals, sitar, dholak
Steeped in the centuries-old Indian folk culture, Dr Sarita McHarg brings a unique classical and contemporary experience to the world of music. A true devotional Sitarist and Vocalist, Sarita has earned several prestigious recognitions including All India Radio Artist, the Talent Award from the University of Vikram (India) and an award for the for contribution to Malwa (folk) music from the Madhya Pradesh State Government in India, to name but a few. During her thirty-five years of musical journey, Sarita is well known for her spiritual and heart-rending playing style. With her strong grip on classical ragas and her staggering instrumentation, Sarita brings the audience along as if they are part of her compositions, whether she’s performing in India or Australia From the International Jazz Festival in Melbourne to the Fringe Festival in Sydney, Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in Nepal or the famous Mahakal Temple in India, Sarita is equally at ease presenting classical Indian ragas with other instruments such as Bouzouki, Oud, Violin and Harp, blending beautiful traditional and modern music.
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Immigration Museum Melbourne 2025
Lizzy Kuoth
poetry and vocals
Meet Lizzy, a wonderfully whimsical, wise, and courageous individual whose vibrant journey is truly inspiring! As a child, she bravely fled war-torn South Sudan alongside her grandmother and younger brothers, spending four transformative years in Egypt before arriving in Melbourne in 2005. Now, two decades later, Lizzy is dynamically carving her path at the exciting intersection of economics and data science—fields she is passionately studying. With her invaluable experience as a former Victorian Multicultural Commissioner, she shares her profound cross-cultural insights and compelling stories that uplift and empower those around her. Currently, Lizzy plays a vital role in youth justice as a bail assessor and court advisor, while also contributing her expertise to the WorkSafe Multicultural Consultative Group and proudly serving as a Refugee Week Ambassador. When she’s not making a positive impact in her professional life, you can find Lizzy writing poems in the Nuer language, embracing nature on hikes or enjoying a delightful coffee outing with friends. Her journey is a testament to resilience and a deep commitment to community, making her a remarkable woman to follow!
Photo by Bruno Stefani for SSI Homelands at Sydney Opera House 2025