Described as “a truly imaginative, thoughtful and special musician,” by the late Richard Gill AO, Otto Gibbs (b. 2004) is a rising force in the realm of contemporary art music. Despite being in the process of completing his music undergraduate degree at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Otto has already made major strides as both a composer and arranger whose music has been performed both nationally and internationally to high renown.

Otto has composed and arranged music for performers of the Singapore, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, as well as chamber groups like the Straits Ensemble and Symbios Quartet. His compositions won him the 2023 Royal Overseas League Orchestral Composition Prize, third place in the 2025 Willoughby Symphony Young Composers Awards, and a finalist position in the 2025 European Recording Orchestra Call for Scores. In 2025, he was also the first Australian to be appointed a New Sights Fellow by Pasat Merdu.

Beyond composition, Otto is an adept percussionist who has played with ensembles across the Indo-Pacific, including the West Australian Youth Orchestra (Australia) and Defying Gravity Percussion (Australia and China), and has freelanced in Australia and Singapore. While classically trained, with mentorship from the likes of Jonathan Fox and Tim White OAM, Otto is also invested in the realm of Chinese percussion, and performed the Australian premiere of Wang Chenwei’s percussion concerto, Bronze Age of Shang. His mentors in Chinese percussion have included Benjamin Boo and the attendants of the Nam Ann Siang Theon Temple.

One of Otto’s greatest achievements was being a recipient of a highly prestigious New Colombo Plan Scholarship, which allowed him to undertake a year’s exchange at the LASALLE College of the Arts, under the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS). Once receiving this scholarship, he was the appointed 2024 Singapore Fellow, giving him an additional managerial role amongst his peers. Other academic achievements include receiving two Certificates of Merit from Edith Cowan University, for having a WAM placing within the top 0.3% of the collective student body.