The Sydney Conservatorium of Music turns 100 in 2015 and they are celebrating the way they know best – with music. The Con has been the focal point of Sydney’s cultural history since its modest beginnings in the old Government House stables and its development into a world-class music institution. The palace for horses is now a palace for music.
‘The jazz concert on Sunday 11th October, which closes the week of Centenary celebrations, will be the first time that alumni from each decade of the history of the Jazz unit perform together in ensemble, and the personnel in the band are all at the forefront of jazz in Australia. It is fantastic that they all received their ‘start’ at the Conservatorium and wonderful that they will be an important part of this week of celebrations. As well as the Alumni all-star band, there are two other smaller ensembles put together by Matt McMahon and Sandy Evans, and the BASSMEN with Brendan Clarke and myself. I can’t imagine being anywhere else on Sunday 11th October!’, says Craig Scott.
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is the home of Australia’s oldest Jazz Studies Program. http://music.sydney.edu.au/study/areas-of-study/jazz
The Jazz unit hosts many local and international guest artists for Master-classes and Artist in Residence programs. Recent guests have included: Dave Douglas, Martin Taylor, Ernie Watts, Kneebody, Jim Black, Christian McBride Trio, Tony Malaby, Greg Osby, Lloyd Swanton, Sandy Evans and John Scofield.
In December, the Conservatorium’s jazz orchestra will team up with one of the world’s leading guitarists to present an incredible celebration of Australian music at the Mid-West Clinic in Chicago.
Since its inception in the early 1970s, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Jazz Orchestra (CJO) has formed an alumni that features many of the leading lights in Australian Jazz. Over the past 5 years, the standard of jazz orchestral studies has developed rapidly with an emphasis on collaborating with, and performing the music of leading international composers such as Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider, Bert Joris, Florian Ross, Jim McNeely, Darcy James Argue, Julian Arguelles and Dick Oatts, to expose the students to leading music and contemporary techniques The orchestra’s debut national tour in 2013 with Belgian based super composer, Bert Joris, was a tour de force.
The alumni of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music jazz course reads like a who’s who of Australian jazz. On Sunday 11 October, a special gala event will bring together a band drawn from some of the Conservatorium’s leading ex-students over the last four decades. Each section of the jazz orchestra includes one graduate from each decade since the courses inception, bringing together seasoned veterans of the Australian jazz scene alongside the names of tomorrow.
Centenary Festival Jazz Concert program:
6.30pm The Bassmen
6.45pm Sandy Evans Trio
7pm Matt McMahon Paths and Streams
7.45pm Sydney Conservatorium of Music Alumni Jazz Orchestra
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Alumni Jazz Orchestra
Conductor – David Theak* (BMus 1997, MMus 2000, current faculty) Featured Tenor Saxophone Soloist
Saxophone David Theak* (BMus 1997, MMus 2000, current faculty) Evan Harris (current BMus (hons) student) Roger Manins* (ADJS 1993) Tim Oram* (ADJS 1989) Nick Bowd* (BMus 2000) Trumpet Dane Laboyrie (BMus 2013) Todd Hardy (BMus 1998) Simon Ferenci* (BMus 2000) Warwick Alder (ADJS 1982, current faculty) Trombone James Greening* (ADJS 1987, current faculty) Dan Barnett (ADJS 1988) Eleanor Shearer (current BMus student) Mitch Nissen (BMus 2013)
Guitar Oliver Thorpe* (BMus 2014) Contrabass Brendan Clarke* (MMus 2014) Piano Steve Barry* (BMus 2011, current PhD student)
Drums Andrew Gander (current PhD student)
Paths and Streams Phil Slater,* trumpet (current faculty) Matt McMahon,* piano (ADJS 1994, current faculty) James Muller,* guitar (current faculty) Brett Hirst,*contrabass (MMus 2008) Simon Barker,* drums (PhD 2012, current faculty) + SCM students string quartet
Sandy Evans Trio Sandy Evans, tenor and soprano saxophone* (ADJS 1984, current faculty) Brett Hirst, bass* (MMus 2008) Toby Hall, drums* (ADJS 1992, MMus 2005)
The Bassmen Craig Scott, contrabass (current faculty / Grad Cert in Higher Education, USyd 2000) Brendan Clarke,* contrabass (MMus 2014)
* denotes National Jazz Awards finalist or winner
SCM CENTENARY FESTIVAL: ALUMNI JAZZ ORCHESTRA
6:30pm, Sunday 11 October 2015 Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music Tickets $50/$25 Bookings http://music.sydney.edu.au/events/centenary-festival-jazz-orchestra-11-10-2015 / 02 8256 2222 (City Recital Hall) Festival – http://music.sydney.edu.au/events/scm-centenary-festival
To buy tickets at the special discount rate of $12.50 use the ‘Centenary’ when booking online: https://tickets.cityrecitalhall.com/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=2766&PROMO=CENTENARY
