Internationally acclaimed composer, sound artist and and radio artist Colin Black won the prestigious Prix Italia Award (2003) in the category Best “Music Radio - Composed Work” for composing and producing his major work The Ears Outside My Listening Room. BBC Radio 3 described this work as "a haunting evocation of Australia", while the Prix Italia Award’s International Jury Report concluded that it, "... lived up to the claim ... that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations." claim ... that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations."

In 2014 Black was awarded an artist residency in Ljubljana by The Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities; while in 2013 Black was commissioned to create the sound art component for The Double Word inter-disciplinary installation at the Sydney Olympic Park site, commissioned to create a major work entitled Semblance and curate The Transmuted Signal four part series for Kunstradio that aired on Austrian public radio, and curated the four part series about sound art entitled Sound Fix for ABC Radio National. In 2012 Black was commissioned by ABC Radio National to created an experimental radio feature work for The Night Air.

In previous years Black was commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur's Klangkunst to create a feature length radio art work from field recordings made in East Germany entitled Kilian’s Antipodean Dream, which as a result of achieving final selection round status in the 2010 Prix Phonurgia Nova, was broadcast as part of the Semaine De La Creation Sonore [Week of Sound Creation] festival in France. Prior to this in 2008 Black had been invited by Czech Radio’s rAdioCUSTICA program to create Soundprints: The Prague Pressings for both broadcast and CD release. For the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2008, held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), Black created his sound installation work The Extended Enviro-Guitar (XEG). In 2007 Black composed and produced a major musical/radiophonic hybrid work entitled Longing, Love & Loss for performance and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network. Black also created the Butter Churn sound sculpture installation in 2007 for Lismore’s Heritage Park (Australia). As part of the 2004 Greek Olympics, Black was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to co-produce & compose two major audio/musical works with a Greek theme for their Olympic programming.

In 2013 Black was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney for his research into sound art for radio. Black is also is a graduate of the UNE Contemporary Music Degree and has an Honorary Graduate Diploma of Musical Directing and Composing for TV from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Black’s work has been selected for broadcast and podcast on stations including Deutschlandradio Kultur, the BBC, YLE Radio, Sweden’s Sveriges Radio as well as many other European stations and in South Africa, New Zealand and numerous times across Australia.