The Monash Sessions and Series

Current Albums

https://monashschoolofmusicandperformance.bandcamp.com/

Past Performances

https://soundcloud.com/monashmusicandperformance

Monash Sessions
Linda May Han Oh
(2020)

"These original pieces are from two of my previous albums - 'Walk Against Wind' and 'Sun Pictures'. On this recording, I rearranged these pieces for these slightly larger configurations and in a short amount of time, these up-and-coming musicians at Monash University learned and executed a considerable amount of challenging music, really delivering their best and doing a fantastic job. They offered their own distinct musical interpretations that I found touching and honest, giving myself a different perspective of these tunes. This album is the culmination of a handful of rehearsals and a night performing this music at the Jazzlab Jazz Club in Brunswick, and I'm honoured to have collaborated with them on this."   - Linda May Han Oh.

Monash Sessions
Sandy Evans & Andrea Keller
(2020)

This project features two of Australia’s most distinctive and distinguished jazz musicians, Sandy Evans and Andrea Keller. It also features Monash University jazz students who had the privilege and rare opportunity to rehearse, perform and record Evans and Kellers’ compositions with them.

"This project was a wonderful creative opportunity and an honour for me. The community of young musicians at Monash were an absolute joy to work with – imaginative, skilled, adventurous, joyful, dedicated and generous. Andrea Keller is one of my all-time favourite musicians and a dear friend. Playing with her in this context was a deeply rewarding and enjoyable experience. Watching her direct and inspire young musicians was a precious treat that has enriched my own creative and teaching practice. Special thanks to Rob Burke, the music faculty and technical staff at Monash for all your help and support, and for making opportunities like this possible".  -Sandy Evans

"A truly inspiring week of music, created with the talented young musicians at Monash University, and my mentor and dear friend Sandy Evans. What an honour to hear my music played by both small and large ensembles, to be immersed in the exuberant energy of the students, and to witness one of Australia‘s great musical leaders work across the spectrum of teaching, performing, and recording. For me, at the centre of jazz and improvised music is a philosophy that focuses on sharing: the Monash Sessions project certainly exemplified that".  - Andrea Keller

Monash Sessions
Ralph Alessi
(2020)

Recorded in 2018, this recording features New York trumpeter, composer and ECM recording artist, Ralph Alessi. He has developed a distinct style that encompasses beauty, experimentation and brilliance that is reflected in both his performance and compositions. Alessi has also performed and recorded with leading figures in the jazz world including Steve Coleman, Sam Rivers, Jack DeJohnette and Jason Moran. On this recording, Alessi is joined by Monash University jazz students who have been afforded the opportunity to rehearse, perform and record Alessi’s compositions. This unique student experience is a key pedagogical approach within the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, with established artists mentoring the next generation of jazz musicians.

Monash Sessions
Ben Monder
(2020)

Recorded in 2016, this project features Ben Monder - a highly celebrated American guitarist and composer who has developed a distinctive ‘voice’ in improvised music both locally in the New York experimental scene and Internationally. He has collaborated with the leading figures in a broad range of music styles including David Bowie, Tony Malaby, Lee Konitz and Paul Motion. This recording is a collaboration between Monash University jazz students who had the opportunity to rehearse, perform and record Monders’ both visceral and considered compositions. This unique student experience is pivotal in the pedagogical approach for students at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, with national and international creative artists mentoring the next generation of jazz musicians.

Monash Sessions
Judy Bailey
(2020)

Recorded in 2019, this project features the iconic and distinguished Australian-based jazz musician - pianist, composer and educator Judy Bailey OAM. It also features Monash University jazz students who had the privilege and rare opportunity to rehearse, perform and record Bailey’s compositions. This unique student experience is a key pedagogical approach within the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, with established artists mentoring the next generation of jazz musicians.

Monash Art Ensemble
Histories
(2016)

‘Histories: for each of us they represent narratives within which we find navigable timelines, chains of causation, explanations. Sometimes teleologies, sometimes songlines, they represent attempts to structure time and place, identity, and to imagine destiny. What history is not is a single truth. Andrew Harrison’s piece in this collection memorialises his grandfather’s traumatic experiences in the trenches of Flanders in 1916-18. Mary Finsterer has us gaze down from a great height. Eugene Ball intrudes into his own strange and magical sound world, and Joseph O’Connor brings worlds of notation and improvisation into a nuanced dialogue. Narrative, dialectic, panorama and testimony are all represented in this collection of Histories.’  Professor Paul Grabowsky.

The Monash Art Ensemble
Nyilipidgi by Paul Grabowsky and 
David and Daniel Wilfred
(2016)

'This album thrives on the unique voices of individuals brought together to play, create and imagine. As a part of the manikay tradition, it is an invitation to sit and listen to the voices of those who are beside us, who wish to share and relate their own lives in song. Nyilipidgi is an artwork of possibility, a breath of fresh air that might just sweep us somewhere we could never anticipate. We do not know to where the wind blows.'
Samuel Curkpatrick.

Paul Grabowsky joins forces with Daniel Wilfred and David Wilfred of the Young Wagilak Group and the Monash Art Ensemble to present Nyilipidgi. 

The Monash Sessions 
Tony Gould and Mike Nock
(2016)

'It would be hard not to be impressed by or enjoy the music here.'The Music Trust

Two of Australia’s most applauded jazz and improvising pianists joined with the cream of Melbourne’s young jazz talent to release the newest offering from the acclaimed Monash Sessions.

Both multi award-winning international artists in their own right, Mike Nock and Tony Gould have joined their incredible forces with the power of a full ensemble of wonderful young musicians from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music.  These two giants of Australian Jazz are joined by renowned musicians and staff: Rob Burke (sax); Jordan Murray (trombone) and Paul Williamson (trumpet), along with jazz students from the School.

The Monash Sessions 
Kenny Werner
(2015)

In August 2014 The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University hosted American jazz pianist Kenny Werner as part of its Artist in Residency program. What resulted is this album, a continuation of excellence demonstrated throughout the entire Monash Sessions series. ‘Werner bought a ‘New York intensity’ to this performance. With complexity in compositions and rhythms, he pushed our students to perform at the edge of their ability and creative powers.’
Rob Burke

The Monash Art Ensemble
Fabliaux by Dave Douglas 
(2015)

'Dave Douglas represents to me the quintessential 21st century musician, a perpetually curious musical explorer with a panoramic overview of the various traditions of which he is a part, and which have seen him span musical worlds from Horace Silver and Mary Lou Williams to John Zorn and Shigeto. His compositional vision has resulted in many fine and unique works. When he agreed to create a new work with the Monash Art Ensemble in 2014, I knew we were in for something groundbreaking; that he chose a medieval form as the basis for this project was as intriguing as it was exciting. Dave presents us with the ‘distant mirror’ as Barbara Tuchman described that period, refracting the pre-tonal harmony, hockets, polyphonic and numerical complexity and coarse timbres of medieval music through the prism of a contemporary and eclectic jazz language, by turns colorful, raucous, tender, chaotic and majestic. It has been deeply satisfying to be a part of this project; I hope you, the listener, have as much fun with Fabliaux as we did in playing it.'
Paul Grabowsky, Monash Art Ensemble Director.

The Monash Series
Monash Academy Orchestra
Ledger and Beethoven 
(2015)

Monash Academy Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based on the Clayton campus consisting of students from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music as well as from across the wider Monash campuses and community.

The orchestra performs a large variety of major symphonic and chamber orchestra repertoire, enabling students to develop their repertoire knowledge and the ensemble and orchestral skills necessary for professional practice. Recent programs have included a performance of Stravinksy’s Rite of Spring, Beethoven’s Symphony No.7, Mahler’s Symphony No.4 and a co-presentation with Victorian Opera. The orchestra offers students the opportunity to be coached by leading professional orchestral players, and collaborates regularly with Australia’s finest soloists and conductors.

Recorded live in Monash University’s Robert Blackwood Hall, Melbourne, Australia on 21 September 2014.

The Monash Sessions
Enrico Rava
(2014)

'The success of the Monash series is a credit to the faculty and the obvious empathy that developed in a short time between the students and the elder statesman.'Jazzwise Magazine (London)

In December 2013 the Head of Music, Robert Burke, the Director of the Academy of Performing Arts, Paul Grabowsky, Stephen Magnusson and Mirko Guerrini together with 35 students from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music travelled to the Monash University Prato Centre in Italy (just outside of Florence) to record with seminal European Jazz musician ECM recording artist, trumpet man, Enrico Rava.

Monash University Flute Ensemble
Fantasie Australis
(2014)