2023 Freedman Jazz Fellowship Finalists Revealed

After an extensive search for Australia's most exciting young jazz talent, The Music Trust’s Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalists have been announced for 2023. 

 

Theo Carbo, Sam Gill and Phillippa Murphy-Haste will go before esteemed judges, Laurence Pike, Ellen Kirkwood, Chris Cody in a live concert finale on September 2nd at ACO Walsh Bay for the chance to take home the $21, 000 award. The 2023 judges noted the talent of all 15 nominees to be “of an exceptionally high standard, with exciting adventurous and imaginative projects.” 

 

With regards to the finalists, the judges continued “Theo, Sam and Phillippa possess seriously impressive musicianship, creativity and demonstrated attention to detail in their projects. It’s incredibly exciting to witness the unique, individual voices and vision of these leading improvisors from the new generation.”

 

 The Fellowship starts with 10 acclaimed jazz masters, from around Australia each nominating an emerging star aged 35 or less whom they truly believe to be the best in the country. Each of the fifteen nominees submits a recording, and pitches a project they intend to carry out with the prize money, should they win. Three esteemed judges evaluate the submissions and choose three finalists to complete live in concert.

Dr Richard Letts, Director of the Music Trust and the Fellowships commented, “This year’s finalists are especially interesting because they are so different from each other! Phillippa brings a technical ability on woodwind instruments that are beyond those found in more conventional competitions. Sam’s knowledge of classical composition is very apparent, as it melded beautifully with his jazz imagination, producing an expressive musical story with unquestionable originality. Theo, the third finalist is creating an innovative new interface that connects real time electronic music with his guitar. Collectively, they make for a strikingly musical and interesting concert.”

FINALISTS

Theo Carbo is a Melbourne based guitarist, composer/improvisor, sound engineer and producer. A keen truth-seeker in music, Theo weaves together different strand seamlessly into his own unified music-making practice. If Theo wins the Fellowship, he seeks to build a software instrument ‘Primary Colours’ (influenced by the music and writing of Mark Fell) that’ll interface with his guitar, and allow enhanced creative expression through immediate and intuitive access to an electronic soundworld. “It is important to me that the guitar is a key element in the instrument’s approach, to retain the performative aspect of playing guitar live.”

Sam Gill is Sydney saxophonist, improviser & composer. He leads the groups Coursed Waters & Scattered, is a member of the composer-improvisor collectives Mind on Fire & Microfiche. Sam was a recipient of SIMA's Emerging Composers Mentorship in 2022 and has been nominated for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2020 and 2021. Should he be awarded the Freedman Fellowship, he’ll undertake the creation and development of an original set of music, to be performed by his new nine-piece improvising ensemble. The “unique instrumentation offers me an expanded sonic palette to explore new creative ideas beyond the smaller ensemble works that I have composed in the past.”

Phillippa Murphy-Haste is a Sydney-based a multi-instrumentalist, clarinet-specialist and composer. Her artistic practice covers a broad range of contexts to which she brings experience in jazz, classical, experimental, improvised music, theatre, inter-arts and cross-cultural collaborations. Her favourite instruments to play are clarinets (A, B flat, bass) and viola. If she wins, she plans an improvising and composing mentorship with Swedish clarinets-specialist Per Texas Johansson plus the creation of a long-form work, Kairos to be rehearsed, recorded, performed and released as an album, featuring Phillippa, Per Texas Johansson, Paul Cutlan, and the band Microfiche of which she is a member.

THE FREEDMAN FELLOWSHIPS

The Freedman Jazz Fellowships began in 2002 and has contributed to the careers of Australia’s most distinguished jazz artists. Past Fellows include luminaries such as Andrea Keller, Julien Wilson, James Muller, Matt Keegan, Phil Slater, Kristin Berardi, Novak Manojlovic, Hilary Geddes and 2022 fellow Tom Avgenicos.

The Freedman Fellowships were conceived by Laurence Freedman AM and Dr Richard Letts AM, are managed by The Music Trust, administered and produced by SIMA. They’re funded by the Freedman Foundation which was founded by Laurence Freedman AM and Kathy Freedman AM. The Freedman Fellowships are a life-changing award offered annually to Australian classical & jazz musicians aged up to 35 years.