Jazz Workshop Australia

Jazz Workshop Australia is a music school in Sydney, Australia, dedicated to the teaching and learning of jazz and improvised music. It is owned and operated by Saul Richardson, Principal, and Karen Richards, Managing Director. It is in a purpose-built space at 58 Atchison St, St Leonards, NSW, Australia.

The vision behind the Jazz Workshop is to make high quality jazz education easily available to students, in one convenient and well-resourced location. We bring motivated students, of all ages and levels, together with some of Australia's finest jazz musician/educators.

It is rare to find a jazz musician who is a truly excellent teacher, who recognises education and their own teaching as a vital aspect of their own professional practice. It is equally rare to find an experienced teacher who is also an expert, working professional jazz player.

At Jazz Workshop Australia we have worked hard to find prominent musicians in whom each of these qualities is combined: Our teaching faculty are all outstanding players and excellent teachers. They are available for private music lessons on: Saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, drums, guitar, clarinet, flute, violin and singing.

Another brilliant aspect of the Jazz Workshop is that we offer students the opportunity to play in a range of jazz bands: big bands, jazz combos, and even a jazz for strings ensemble. Students from diverse areas and backgrounds get to work together, playing jazz music and learning the essential skills of jazz improvisation, small group ensemble skills, and self confidence. We offer good, structured rehearsals, access to a huge library of wonderful music, and a community of like minded, motivated students.

During school holidays, and often at other times too, Jazz Workshop Australia runs jazz improvisation workshops. These range from "Jazz For Kids", for primary school kids, through our popular "Introduction to Jazz Improvisation" to advanced improvisation workshops. Most are presented by Saul Richardson, but guest presenters at the Jazz Workshop have included Jamie Oehlers, Jacam Manricks, John Conley, John Morrison, Matt Baker, and even Bob Mintzer.

As part of our project to create a vibrant community of jazz musicians on Sydney's north shore, we also open our facility to professional groups as a rehearsal venue. Swing City, the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, Ralph Pyl's Sydney Allstars Big Band, Blue Riff Big Band, the Black and White Big Band, Gai Bryant's Spare Parts orchestra with Jim McNeely, Tom Burlinson, Blaine Whittaker, and many others have all used our fully equipped and soundproof rehearsal room.

Jazz Workshop Australia operates international and domestic performance tours for student ensembles. OUr most recent tour took a band of our students to New York, Florida and Barbados for great gigs plus workshops with Rufus Reid, John Fedchock and the University of Southern Florida Jazz Ensemble. The students also went to Iridium jazz club in New York city to see an all star band with Cedar Walton, Jimmy Cobb, Javon Jackson, and Buster Williams. A tour like this is an unforgettable experience! We are available help schools and other bands to organise their own overseas tours too, drawing on our years of experience and huge network of contacts.

Perhaps our most exciting event is the annual Jazz Camp, directed by John Morrison. John is one of Australia's great jazz drummers and is a truly inspirational educator who has encouraged and mentored generations of young jazz musicians. Jazz Camp is held in late January in Sydney. It is a residential camp, bringing together some of the keenest and most accomplished students from all over Australia and New Zealand. It caters to students ages 11 to 19 Year at all levels of experience.

We run a shorter, non-residential camp for adults, usually in February.

Jazz Workshop Australia, and our venue, the Jazz Workshop, is a unique and exciting project. We invite anybody keen to learn and play jazz music to visit us and participate in any of the huge range of opportunities on offer.