Julien Wilson has been awarded the 2006 Freedman Jazz Fellowship.
The 34-year-old Melbourne-based tenor saxophonist performed with his trio at the Fellowship play-off held at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night (June 19).
The other finalists were drummer Laurence Pike, who played with his group Triosk, and trumpeter Eugene Ball and bassist Sam Anning, who each performed with their quartets.
Julien burst onto the national scene in 1994 when he won the National Jazz Award at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. He has since performed in a wide range of groups, including the Australian Art Orchestra, Snag, Ishish, assumptions, Rumberos and Los Cabrones.
He holds degrees in music from Melbourne University and the New England Conservatory in Boston, and currently teaches at the Victorian College of the Arts and Monash University.
Julien says he will use the Fellowship to fund a tour of Scandinavia with his group – guitarist Stephen Magnusson and Stephen Grant on piano accordion – and will then record an album in New York with drummer Jim Black.
Inaugurated in 2001, the Freedman Music Fellowships are administered by the Music Council of Australia.
The prize money for the Fellowship is $20,000. The award is made up of $15,000 in cash, promotional materials up to $5,000, and consultations to assist with non-musical aspects of career-building, as well as active support from the Music Council during the Fellowship period.
The judges this year were Judy Bailey, Carl Dewhurst and Steve Hunter.
