Ross Bolleter

Ross Bolleter (born 1946 in Subiaco) is an Australian composer and musician whose work is focused on ruined pianos, Bolleter played piano with the house band at a hotel in Parmelia (later bought out by Hilton) for six years, spending the final year playing solo in the front bar. Also in 1989, he started the Synchronicity Project, a collection of "intuitive pieces" of improvisation, wherein musicians performed in different locations across Australia and the world. "Simulplay 1" in September 1989 saw Jim Denley playing flute to a live audience in Linz, accompanied from the ABC radio studios in Perth by Bolleter on piano and accordion and Carol Henning on a plastic trombone. The second work, "That Time/Simulplay 2", was a piece for two musicians on opposite sides of the continent. They played simultaneously but were unable to hear each other, while an audience listened to the overlapping audio. This performance had Ryszard Ratajczak on double bass at ABC FM Sydney and Bolleter on two different pianos (standard and prepared), played through on separate recordings, from ABC's Perth studios. "Time/Simulplay 2" was released as part of the album Crow Country in 2000. It included musicians Jim Denley (Radio ORF Vienna), Stevie Wishart (BBC Radio London), David Moss (SFR Berlin), Jon Rose (ABC Sydney) and Simone De Haan (ABC Melbourne). It was later released as a CD under the same name in 2004.

In 2005, following an installation (Piano Labyrinth) of 17 ruined pianos at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Bolleter collaborated with York olive farmers Kim Hack and Penny Mossop to create the country's first Ruined Piano Sanctuary. Here, around forty pianos are left to decay in the elements in dams, groves and fields. In 2008, he performed Ruined at the 10 Days on the Island Festival, In 2010, he installed 18 ruined pianos at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery as part of the 10 Days on the Island Festival. in Robert Castiglione's film Invitation to Ruin, which was shown at the Totally Huge New Music Festival in 2015; and in musicologist Tim Rutherford-Johnson's book Music After the Fall (2017). In April 2025, he performed Lee Buddle's score for The Little Prince at Spare Parts Puppet Theatre.

Other artists Bolleter has worked with include Kavisha Mazzella, Lindsay Vickery, Ernie Althoff Carrier's Nothing as a Thing was released on the WARPS label in 2012.

Bolleter's Crow Country was nominated as one of the 10 best albums of 1999 by Cadence Magazine and Secret Sandhills and Satellites (2006) was voted best CD of September 2006 by Blow Up magazine and #2 CD of the year by the French magazine dMute.

Zen Buddhism Until his retirement in 2023, Bolleter was a Zen Buddhist teacher in the Diamond Sangha tradition. He trained with Robert Aitken and John Tarrant from 1982 to 1992, when he was authorised by Tarrant to teach. He received transmission from both Aitken and Tarrant in 1997. He taught primarily in the Zen Group of Western Australia (ZGWA) but has also taught extensively elsewhere in Australia and in New Zealand. He has given transmission to: Mary Jaksch, Susan Murphy, Bob Joyner, Ian Sweetman, Glenn Wallis, Mari Rhydwen

Personal life Bolleter has two children, Amanda and Julian. As of 2015, he had five ruined pianos in the kitchen of his Perth home. 2004: All the Iron Night (edited by Andrew Burke), Smokebush Press. 2014: The Five Ranks of Dongshan: Keys to Enlightenment, Wisdom Publications. 2017: Du piano-épave / The Well Weathered Piano (bilingual edition), Editions Lenka Lente. 2020: Blind Summits (with Christopher Konrad), Sunline Press. 2022: Average Human Heart: left hand stories, Editions Lenka Lente. 2022: The Piano Book (with Antoinette Carrier), WARPS. 2025: Suivez ma Trace / Track Me Down (bilingual edition), Editions Lenka Lente.

Discography Year Title Label Record number Notes Refs 1982 Openings Wasit Music With Tos Mahoney Left Hand of the Universe W02 2002 Satellites WARPS W06 Secret Sandhills W05 Pocket Sky WARPS 2008 Café Sophia Sunset Ostrich S02 2009 Five by Five WARPS W11 DVD of 5 pieces in 5.1 Surround Spring in Iraq W13 2nd edition, with Anthony Cormican Solitary Light W14 Gust W15 2nd edition Music of Chance W21 2nd edition 2015 While my coffee cools W22 Bolleter's poetry set to music 2017 Quarry Music W23 With Anthony Cormican Inland Sea W25 With Martin Seddon Night is a world lit by itself W26 Total Piano, volume 1 2018 Speak Love W27 Total Piano, volume 2 2019 Beloved on this Earth: a song cycle W28 With Anthony Cormican Café Antoinette Heard from Earth WARPS W28 Total Piano, volume 3 2020 Terra Incognita W29 Total Piano, volume 4 Such & Such With Eduardo Cossio WARPS W33 2024 The Colour of a Thousand Miles W34

Additionally, he performed “Nallan Void” on New Albion Records' Austral Voices in 1990 and Margaret Leng Tan's She Herself Alone in 2010.