Monash Art Ensemble

The award-winning Monash Art Ensemble will premiere two new compositions at the Alexander Theatre as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Led by Artistic Director Professor Paul Grabowsky AO, the ensemble features the next generation of talent from Monash University's Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance and special guest performers.

In this very special celebration of music, audiences will hear the premiere of new work, The Birdlife Suite, by critically-acclaimed North American pianist Kris Davis, and a collaborative composition by Australian jazz heavyweight Rob Burke and alto saxophonist Michael Kellett.

Guest composer Kris Davis is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by The New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz on a given night.”

Davis has released 23 recordings as a leader or co-leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and Esperanza Spalding.

She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021.

Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the founder of Pyroclastic Records. Davis is a Steinway Artist.