One of Australia’s most celebrated jazz orchestra’s hits the road in September 2018. Featuring the incredible music of Jim McNeely, Bert Joris, Maria Schneider, Bob Brookmeyer and Australian guitarist James Muller, the orchestra features incredible repertoire, outstanding ensemble playing and a who’s who of the next generation of Australian Jazz. Since its inception in the early 70s, the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra has formed an alumnus that features many of the leading lights in Australian Jazz. Comprising 5 saxophones, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, guitar, piano, bass and drums, the CJO features many of Sydney’s finest young improvisers who have gone on to feature heavily in Australia’s jazz prizes and accolades.

“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 the leading music and contemporary techniques required to perform Jazz Orchestral music at its highest level. These amazing young players have risen to the challenge on every level, and we aim to continue impressing audiences whenever we perform, with a level of sophistication normally reserved for professional Jazz”. The orchestra’s debut national tour in 2013 with Belgian based super composer, Bert Joris, was a tour de force.

Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra Artistic Director David Theak has been a tireless advocate for large ensemble jazz in Australia through his formation of the Australian National Jazz Orchestra in 2018, his work with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, as Head of the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz studies program, convenor of the National Big Band Composition Competition and as a former guest artist and artistic advisor with the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra. Theak created the ’Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra’ as a young member of Sydney’s music scene and is now mentor to scores of emerging musicians nationally and internationally.

Tickets $10 or free for music students.