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 written and arranged music for the likes of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO), the BASE Philharmonic Orchestra, The Straits Ensemble, Defying Gravity Percussion, WAAPA Symphony Orchestra, Symbios Quartet, and more - so far, his music has been performed in Australia, Singapore, and Norway. Stylistically, he is a musical chameleon with proficiency in writing western classical, jazz, and intercultural music, the result of tuition from luminaries like Lindsay Vickery, Belinda Foo, Felix Phang and Wang Chenwei. 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 2024, he was a participant of the WASO Composition Project, and 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. 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). Furthermore, he was the appointed 2024 Singapore Fellow, giving him an additional managerial role amongst his peers. Later that year, he also received a certificate of achievement from Edith Cowan University (ECU), WAAPA’s parent organisation, for scoring within the top 0.3% of their collective students. He was only one of two musicians in the institution to reach such a benchmark.