She won the Dorian Le Gallienne Award in 1965, a Senior Composer's Fellowship in 1973, and served as composer-in-residence with the Australian Opera beginning in 1974.
It was written for soprano Deborah Kayser, with the ELISION Ensemble to accompany her on piccolo/flute, clarinet, percussion, harp, mandolin, 10-string guitar, viola and cello.
In Spell Against Sorrow (2003), for soprano and guitar, written for Deborah Kayser and Geoffrey Morris, Gifford used text from three poems of Kathleen Raine.
Menin Gate (2005) was written for Michael Kieran Harvey and won APRA/AMC Classical Music State Award for Victoria 2006.
[8] Gifford composes for stage, orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments, often incorporating elements of Balinese and Javanese music.