The Jazzlab Thursday Dec 7 doors 7pm Show 7.30pm

Tickets HERE $35/25 Bookings essential

Monash Art Ensemble feat. Andrea Keller and Cheryl Durongpisitkul

The Monash Art Ensemble (MAE) commissions, performs and records new, mainly Australian, work for a mixed ensemble ranging in size from around ten to twenty players.

Driven by the philosophy to play music that explores the interface between composition and improvisation, the MAE began in 2012 during the final months of Paul Grabowsky’s tenure as AD of the Australian Art Orchestra, with the aim of encouraging mid-career artists, nurturing young talent and developing audiences outside the critical mass of cultural infrastructure in Melbourne’s CBD. It has engaged University funding and infrastructure to leverage significant philanthropic support, expand music audiences in the south east of Melbourne and support social equity through commissioning, performing and recording new music by diverse identities of composers, performers, staff and students.

In addition, the MAE aims to mentor select music students via the engagement of leading independent practitioners and music staff alongside them in the performance of new music to engage artistic research to understand and evaluate the challenges thrown up by the creation of new works, particularly in terms of ontological and phenomenological aspects of reflexivity in improvisation.

As Artistic Director Paul Grabowsky explains, “Jazz represents only one of the many traditions that imply improvisation – it’s particularly exciting to see students from non-jazz backgrounds express themselves freely within the group. This applies equally to composers, who, along with the mentors, are just as likely to learn from the students and vice versa”. Since its inception in 2012, the MAE has commissioned 26 new works and features annually at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Notable commissions have included Carla Bley, Kris Davis, Andrea Keller, Cheryl Durongpistkul, Aaron Wyatt, Iran Sanadzadeh & George Lewis, to name only a handful.

The MAE has previously released 7 CDs to critical acclaim including 2016 APRA Art Music Award, Jazz Work of the Year; 2015 Bell Award, Best Australian Contemporary Avant-garde Jazz Album; 2014 APRA Art Music Award, Jazz Work of the Year; 2014 APRA Art Music Award, Instrumental Work of the Year; and 2013 Bell Award, Best Avant Garde Recording. Barney McCall’s Zephyrix, commissioned and recorded by the MAE is the latest success, being nominated for the 2019 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album, and winning the Bell Award for Best Produced Album.

This performance in MWIJF 2023 is the launch of the ensembles’ recordings of Cheryl Durongpisitkul’s ‘A Pinky Promise’ and Andrea Keller’s ‘Circuit Breaker’.

Andrea Keller - Circuit Breaker

Soprano Sax Mirko Guerinni

Bass clarinet Freya Par

Alto sax Cheryl Durongpisitkul

Tenor sax Rob Burke

Trumpet Ash Ballat

Trombone Oskar Moore

Piano Andrea Keller

Violin Meg Cohen

Viola Phoebe Green

Guitar Max Bruten

Drums Patrick Skarajew

Double bass Phil Rex

Cheryl Durongpisitkul - A Pinky Promise

Flute Yael Zamir

Clarinet Nicole Canham

Bass clarinet Freya Par

Alto sax Cheryl Durongpisitkul

Baritone Saxophone Mirko Guerinni

Trumpet Ash Ballat

Trombone Oskar Moore

Piano Matt Steele

Violin Meg Cohen

Viola Phoebe Green

Guitar Max Bruten

Drums Patrick Skarajew

Double bass Phil Rex

Andrea Keller

Andrea Keller is an Australian pianist, composer and improviser. Dedicated to the performance, creation, and nurturing of contemporary jazz and improvised music, her projects celebrate the wealth and diversity of Australian musicians. With a propensity for the ‘new’, Andrea is somewhat of a serial bandleader, having devised and led almost twenty projects over her career to date.

In addition to her own projects, she is part of numerous collaborations and ensembles, including the Australian Art Orchestra, Vanessa Perica Orchestra, Sam Anning Sextet and Sandy Evans/Andrea Keller duo. Andrea has received multiple commissions to create new work for musicians in varying genres, including Ten Part Invention, recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey, Flinders Quartet, and more.

Highly lauded for her music in Australia, Andrea has received numerous awards for her albums, ensembles and compositions, including three ARIA’s, multiple Australian Jazz Bell, and more. She runs the educational program Gender Defying Jazz and is Head of Jazz & Improvisation at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.

Cheryl Durongpisitkul

Cheryl is a talented composer and saxophonist known for her innovative style and ability to weave captivating narratives through her work. Cheryl released her debut album, Follow Me Through The Red Ash, in 2017 to critical acclaim. She co-leads the JazzLab Orchestra and has released two albums, Menagerie (2018) and Pink Milk (2021) with collaborative trio Koi Kingdom.

Cheryl is a dynamic artist in the Australian jazz landscape, dedicated to pushing boundaries in jazz and contemporary music performance and composition. She has attended the prestigious Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music and participated in masterclasses with New York-based record label New Amsterdam. She received the SIMA Young Composer Award in 2019 and premiered her work Critical Point at the Sydney Women’s Jazz Festival and was nominated for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2020. She has also received commissions from the Inventi Ensemble (Hidden Pockets, 2023 premiere) and Homophonic (In Full Splendour, 2023 premiere as part of Midsumma Festival).

Her work with MAE is a response to her personal experiences as a woman-of-colour in the jazz community and years of watching others experiencing prejudice due to their gender. ‘A Pinky Promise’, is a commitment to continually push for change within our communities.

Sasha Gavlek Quartet

Sasha Gavlek - Bass

Angus Leighton - Tenor Sax

Stella Anning - Guitar

Holly Thomas - Drums

SGQ x Melbourne

A collaboration between local jazz legends of naarm/Melbourne and nipaluna/Hobart; bassist, soup enthusiast, and queer jazz luminary of lutruwita, Sasha Gavlek (25) presents her original compositions in company with Stella Anning (guitar), Holly Thomas (drums), and Angus Leighton (tenor sax).
High intensity rhythmic ideas encouraging soulful improvisation, each member of the ensemble will bring their personal touch to Gavlek’s alt-jazz compositions, forging a partnership between the Women’s International Jazz Festival of Melbourne and the Clarence Jazz Festival of Hobart.

Based in nipaluna lutruwita (Hobart, Tasmania), Sasha Gavlek (25) is a contemporary bassist, bandleader, composer and educator, with a love for alternative jazz and improvisation. Gavlek graduated from the UTAS Conservatorium of music with a Bachelor of Music in 2019, and is a prominent and busy musician of the island, regularly performing within various established ensembles, and in 2022, having released her debut all-original album, On Second Thoughts by the Sasha Gavlek Quartet.

By day Gavlek provides musical tutorship and accompaniment to students across local schools. Nurturing her connection with the music scene in greater Southern Australia, Gavlek is passionate in discussing the experiences of women working within a heavily male-dominated industry, and the importance of providing opportunity to those who find their voices often lost on the ears of those in power.

Dec 7 Monash Art Ensemble recording launch

feat. Andrea Keller and Cheryl Durongpisitkul

opening set: Sasha Gavlek Quartet (Tas/Melb)

co-presented with Clarence Jazz Festival

evening show 7.30PM