With The Twoks, Xani has been able to realize her dreams of performing in amazing venues and for prestigious festivals such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Jazz Fringe, International Comedy Festival, International Women’s Jazz Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Brisbane Festival. She has also recorded a number of albums and EPs, appeared on ABCs Sunday Arts and Arts Nation and has had her original music played on radio stations all over the country. Xani has booked and organized her own tours, media activities, publicity campaigns and live shows in her home state of Victoria.
Xani has also toured nationally and internationally with other well-known acts such as You Am I, True Live, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, David Bridie, Old Man River, Scott Edgar and the Universe and with Tim Rogers. She has appeared in Malthouse productions such as Woyzeck and Meow Meow’s “Little Match Girl” (which toured to Sydney festival this year), Tim Rogers’ “Saligia” (which performed at the Sydney Opera House), Present Tense’s “Chants Des Catacombes” and has performed on film soundtracks such as Bran Neu Dae. She is a sought-after session musician and sessional player in the studio and for live performance. Xani has also performed solo live on radio, as a support act for Nigel Kennedy’s late night jazz jam at the Abbotsford Convent and on “Delivery” with Owen McKern on Triple R. Xani performed live at Owen’s last Delivery program last year alongside the likes of Stephen Magnusson and on 3MBS for their radiothon.
Xani received an Austalia Council Artstart grant in 2011 to write new songs as part of a winter residency at The Banff Centre in Canada and to tour The Twoks to Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has received numerous awards for her innovative approach to the violin including the Alan C. Rose Memorial Scholarship which funded her debut album, the McConnan Scholarship to complete her Honours, an Australian Postgraduate Award to fund her postgraduate study, the Dr. Phillip Law award for innovation and was nominated for a Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2010.
Xani took the violin – a predominantly classical instrument – and turned it into her own electronic tool and way of expressing herself in a popular music genre. The music she makes is individual, expressive and full of passion.