Congratulations to the 2016 Jann Rutherford Award recipient Emma Stephenson who will be presenting her project at the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. The concert will feature Hieronymus Trio (Emma Stephenson-piano, Nick Henderson – bass and Oli Nelson – drums) in collaboration with one of Australia’s most outstanding vocalists, Gian Slater.
Since emerging on the Sydney music scene, Sydney pianist and composer Emma Stephenson has performed at well known venues such as the The Basement, the Sydney Town Hall, Foundry 616, The Vanguard and the 505 and shared the stage with prolific musicians and bands such as the Sirens Big Band, Sandy Evans, Mohammed Youseff, Swing City Big band, Gregg Arthur (jazz vocalist).
Emma is currently enrolled as a fulltime PhD student at the Sydney Conservatorium of music, under the supervision of Dr. Simon Barker, where she is in engaged in creative, practice-led research related to developing her artistic practice. Emma has studied with celebrated Australian jazz pianists including Marc Hannaford, Judy Bailey, Matt McMahon, Mike Nock and Kevin Hunt. As an undergraduate student at the Sydney Conservatorium of music, she was awarded the 2012 Corinna Taylor Memorial Prize, and the Jacek Chrowtowski award for jazz pianists in both 2015 and 2016. She graduated with First Class Honours in April 2016.
In early 2015, Emma travelled to New York City to study with jazz pianists Aaron Goldberg, Jean-Michel Pilc and Ted Rosenthal. Later that year, she was awarded a travel scholarship from the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, which funded a return trip to the USA in January 2016, where she recorded with ‘Hieronymus Trio’, on their self-titled, debut album. Emma has travelled to Scotland to perform at the Edinburgh Jazz festival and Aberdeen International Youth Festival with the Alex Silver Quintet on a tour funded by the Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) in 2013.
The Jann Rutherford Memorial Award was founded in 2005 to develop opportunities for emerging female jazz musicians. The award provides recipients with national performance opportunities for their band, a recording for ABC Radio National and publicity and promotional materials.
Past recipients of the award such as Alex Silver, Hannah James, Ellen Kirkwood, Ali Foster, Jess Dunn and Harri Harding (of the Sirens Big Band), Jess Green and Jodie Michael.
