Colin Bright is a Composer and Improvisor. ‘My compositions aim to define aspects of where I live (i.e. 'psyche of place'), and how I/we live (my perception of the psychological state of the society of which I am a part). Improvisation has always been at the core of my musical practice.’ Contrary to Australia’s other leading composers, Colin Bright is essentially self-taught. His early involvement in socio-political issues and his interest in Aboriginal music led to him to adopt Peter Sculthorpe as a mentor through the early seventies.
Colin Bright has since received Composer Fellowships, International Fellowships and commissions from most of Australia’s leading ensembles and his music has been performed and broadcast in 27 countries around the world. He was awarded a 2 year Composer Fellowship from the Music Board of the Australia Council, 2003-4. And has twice received Best Composition by an Australian Composer at the Classical Music Awards
Stephen Morley was a Featured Artist at the 42nd International Horn Symposium, Brisbane, Australia, 2010. In 2009 he was a Guest Artist at the 6th Julius Watkins Jazz French Horn Festival in Seattle, Washington. An alumni of OMI International Artists’ Colony, New York 2002, Stephen has performed at Goethe Institute, New York City, as well as with Peter Knight’s 5+2 (Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2002), Stephen Morley Quintet (Bennett’s Lane Melbourne) and with Tony Gorman’s Monday Club, including a 2 week residency on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, as part of the Places and Spaces program 2012. His CD “Squall”, released on Rufus Records, was commissioned by ABC Classic FM's Jazztrack program in 2006. Stephen has performed with this group at the Seymour Centre (Sydney), Bennetts Lane and live-to-air for ABC Radio National's The Music Show.
Jim Piesse’s broad musical experience includes playing and touring with a who’s who of Australian and international artists. He has had extensive experience playing improvised music as a member of the acclaimed Nolan/Buddle quartet, and as a member of Galapagos Duck. Jim has played concerts with bands led by Al Cohn, Barney Kessel, and Paul McNamara. He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, later going to the U.S.A. to study with Ed Soph, Murray Spivack and Joe Morello. Subsequently, he won an Australian PPCA grant to continue his studies with Morello. Leading Australian players come to Jim for help with developing and refining their technique, amongst them Tim Firth, Hamish Stuart and Andrew Gander. Jim is currently engaged in a project with the U.S. website Drumchannel to bring it’s educational content into Australian schools. He endorses D.W. drums and Sabian cymbals.
Paul Cutlan's expressive voice as a multi-instrumentalist and composer is informed by many styles, including contemporary classical music, world music and jazz.
He has played with groups such as Ten Part Invention, Ensemble Offspring, Vince Jones, Australian Art Orchestra, Dr G Yunupingu, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra with the Presets and Sydney Theatre Company. Cutlan performed in Diary of a Madman for Belvoir in Sydney and New York and backed international acts including Lou Reed, Ólafur Arnalds, Bobby Previte , Jim McNeely and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
Cutlan is a long-term member of world/jazz group MARA!, touring Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. He was composer and musical director for the Beat cabaret Birth of the Cool in Sydney, Edinburgh and Germany and led a trio at the Paris quartier d’été.
Composition commissions include works for the Sydney Festival, Ars Musica Australis, Aurora New Music Festival and Divergence Jazz Orchestra. Cutlan’s works feature on his CD Across the Top.
The Colin Bright Syzygy Band
Nick Polovineo completed his Bachelor of Music Performance (Jazz) from the Sydney Conservatorium in late 2017. An emerging young improviser, he is an active member of a number of ensembles playing music ranging from 1920's swing to contemporary improvisation.
Noam Jaffe is currently in his fourth year of his BMus Performance degree at the Sydney Conservatorium, where he was the recipient of the Jean and Thomas Louis Pidcock scholarship, and studies with Janet Davies. He was the winner of the 2014 Conservatorium High School soloists competition, CHAOS. Noam was a 2016 finalist of the Conservatorium’s concerto competition. He has toured internationally with the Australian Youth Orchestra 2016, and attended the Estivo chamber music summer program in Italy in 2017. Also in 2017, Noam served as concertmaster of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. Complementing his work as an orchestral and chamber musician, Noam is passionate about music as a driver of social change. Most recently, he was recipient of the New Colombo Grant, and partook in an education tour of Samoa which explored the intersection of traditional Samoan music and western classical music, working with the newly-formed Samoan National Orchestra and young Samoan musicians.
