James Hazel is a composer, artist, and researcher working between unceded Gadigal Land and Naarm. Moving across video, text, language, voice, and sound, his practice explores how score-based and listening forms can render the hauntological, classed, and temporal conditions of late capitalism audible. In this respect, his work treats the ear as a site of radical sociological worlding.
James is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology and Cultural Studies at The University of Melbourne. He has studied composition with Johannes Kreidler, Peter Ablinger, and Cecilia Arditto, among others. His work has been supported by Creative Australia, Create NSW, and City of Sydney.
In recognition of his contributions to the experimental sound community, James received the APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards (Experimental category) in 2022 alongside Elia Bosshard for their work with ADSR ZINE. In 2021, he was selected as an ABC Top 5 Researcher (Arts), a program supported by The University of Melbourne and Creative Australia. In 2023, he was one of four composers nationally shortlisted for the APRA AMCOS Professional Development Awards (Classical/Experimental).
In 2024, James’s work underclass(auto)theology was selected as a finalist in the Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change, where it received an Honourable Mention from the judges.
From 2023–2024, James was an artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, during which he composed new music for West Australian Ballet.
In 2026, he was selected to participate in the Bespoke Artists Program with Speak Percussion.
James is the founder of POOR OPERA, an organisation that creates precarious operas, facilitates community workshops, produces publications, and builds support networks for working- and under-class artists.