2025 Guest Artists

3 amazing guest artists

2 projects in Sydney & Perth

1 experience of a lifetime

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, I was immediately taken by Gordon’s contemporary musical viewpoint, the dynamics of his “Big Phat Band,” its bevy of superb soloists, and the exhilaration of its sound
— Quincy Jones

2025 Guest Artists (May) 

Gordon Goodwin & Wayne Bergeron 

May 5, 6 & 7 Sydney Intensive

Pianist/composer/arranger and band leader, Gordon Goodwin leads one of THE most exciting large jazz ensembles on the planet. Populated by L.A.’s finest players, the Big Phat Band takes the big band tradition into the new millennium with a contemporary, highly original sound featuring Goodwin’s witty, intricate, and hard-swinging compositions in a veritable grab bag of styles: swing, Latin, blues, classical, rock and more.

A steady, persistent audio diet of the giants of jazz, pop, rock and funk has nourished Goodwin’s being since childhood. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Tower of Power, among many others, filled the well for the music his band makes today. And like those other bands, Goodwin’s music is nothing less than astonishing when experienced live.

Goodwin’s ability to combine jazz excellence with any musical style makes his writing appealing to fans across the spectrum. That’s why both beboppers and headbangers dig Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band.

Established in 2000, the Big Phat Band’s debut recording, Swingin’ For The Fences (Silverline Records), featured guest artists Arturo Sandoval and Eddie Daniels. It made history as the first commercially available DVD-Audio title ever released and the first DVD-Audio title to receive two GRAMMY nominations.

The band’s second album, XXL (Silverline Records), was released on DVD-Audio and compact disc in 2003. Charting its first week, XXL garnered three GRAMMY nominations for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Best Instrumental Composition (“Hunting Wabbits”) and Best Instrumental Arrangement with Vocals (“Comes Love” with Brian McKnight and Take 6), while winning the Surround Sound Award for “Best Made for Surround Sound Title.” The list of guest artists matched the high quality of the first release and featured, among others, Johnny Mathis and the incomparable Michael Brecker.

The Big Phat Band’s third album, The Phat Pack (immergent Records), with guest stars Dianne Reeves, David Sanborn, Eddie Daniels and Take 6, received a GRAMMY nomination and spent 31 weeks on the Billboard jazz charts.

Released in September 2008, the Big Phat Band’s fourth recording, Act Your Age, far outsold every other big band record in its path. Produced by acclaimed guitarist Lee Ritenour, it featured a host of terrific guests including Patti Austin, Chick Corea, Dave Grusin and even Ritenour himself, plus a special appearance by the late pianist Art Tatum on a stunning performance that had jaws dropping right and left. The critically acclaimed Act Your Age garnered three GRAMMY nominations.

A keyboardist and woodwind player, Goodwin has built a larger-than-life reputation throughout the music industry for his composing, arranging and playing skills. Ray Charles, Christina Aguilera, Johnny Mathis, Toni Braxton, John Williams, Natalie Cole, David Foster, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Brian McKnight and Quincy Jones are just a few of the artists with whom he has worked. Goodwin has also conducted world-renowned symphony orchestras in Atlanta, Dallas, Utah, Seattle, Toronto and London.

Goodwin’s cinematic scoring and orchestration craft can be heard on such films as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Escape to Witch Mountain, Get Smart, Glory Road, National Treasure, The Incredibles, Remember The Titans, Armageddon, The Majestic, Con Air, Gone In 60 Seconds, Enemy of the State, Star Trek Nemesis and even the classic cult film Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes. Goodwin’s soundtrack to Looney Tunes’ Bah HumDuck! – a wacky Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck riff on the classic A Christmas Carol – also features the Big Phat Band’s patented sound.

Wayne Bergeron

Wayne Bergeron is enjoying a career as one of the most active players on the Los Angeles scene. With studio dates, International touring, jazz concerts, guest soloist appearances and clinics he has no intention of slowing down.

Bergeron’s first solo Big Band CD entitled “You Call This A Living?” earned him a Grammy nomination in 2004 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble as well as rave reviews from fans and press worldwide. Wayne’s latest recording “Plays Well With Others” was released on the Concord Jazz label in early 2007 is being met with the same gusto. On “Plays Well With Others” Bergeron is joined on the track “Maynard & Waynard” by his mentor, the late Maynard Ferguson in one of the trumpet legends final recordings.

As a sideman Wayne has been involved with hundreds of CD projects that include Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Natalie Cole, Chicago, Bette Midler, Ray Charles, Diane Reeves, Celine Dion, Diana Krall, Mel Torm, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Lou Rawls, Rosemary Clooney, Diane Schuur, Joe Cocker, Kenny G., Dave Koz and David Benoit.

A partial list of film credits include “Enchanted,” “Horton Hears A Who,” “The Incredibles,” “Superman Returns,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Ratatouille,” “The Simpson’s Movie,” “Dreamgirls,” “Hairspray,” “Spiderman,” “Team America,” “South Park” and “The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.”

Wayne enjoys his work as a clinician/guest soloist and continues to tour in the US as well as abroad.

2025 Guest Artist (Oct) 

Claudia Döffinger 

Oct 27 - 30 Perth International Jazz Festival

German Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Claudia Döffinger is a rising star of the European Big Band scene having finished a master degree in Jazz piano and pedagogy at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (CH) as well as a master degree in Jazz composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (AT).

Claudia´s biggest passion is big band! In 2018 she published her first big band album „Monochrome“. Since summer 2021 Claudia is living in Cologne, composing, arranging and working a lot for large ensembles like the hr Big Band (D), Subway Jazz Orchestra (D), Spielvereinigung Sued (D), Jazzkombinat Hamburg (D),Big Band Zug (CH) and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra (FI).

Recently she founded her own big band „TORSO VENTUNO“, where she brought together musicians from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, which she had met in the last 15 years on her musical path. The debut album just has been recorded in march 2024 and will be out on february, 14th 2025.

She is founder of several smaller ensembles, like fourscape (experimental groove) and ELiNOR (acoustic Jazz quintet) with which she has toured actively all over the world and published many albums: 2020 the third album of fourscape ‚Better angry than sad‘ and 2021 the debut album of ELiNOR ‚von oben‘ came out.

Döffinger wants to move people through her music, either emotionally or physically.

Claudia was honored with several national and international prizes: she won the first prize at the Helsinki International Big Band Composing Contest (FL/2021) and was nominated for Deutscher Jazzpreis in the category ´best arrangement` (DE/2021). Further she received the Harald-Kaufmann-Preis and Startstipendium (AT/2018). She won the Downbeat Student Music Award (2017&2018/USA) and was honoured at the 3rd International Composition Contest Katowitz (PL/2016). Last but not least Claudia was one of the selected participants for the Metropole Arrangers Workshop with the Grammy winner Lalah Hathaway and conductor Vince Mendoza (NL/2015).

Claudia taught Jazz composition and arrangement at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (CH) and at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (DE).

2024 Guest Artist

Remy Le Boeuf

Remy Le Boeuf is a 4x Grammy-nominated composer and saxophonist whose music is rooted in the jazz tradition and overlaps into contemporary classical and indie-rock realms. Le Boeuf is also the founder and director of the jazz orchestra, Assembly of Shadows, as well as the Chief Conductor of the Nordkraft Big Band in Denmark. 

He has worked with a range of collaborators including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Linda Oh, HAIM, JACK Quartet, Dayna Stephens, Prefuse 73, and his identical twin brother Pascal, with whom he co-leads the experimental jazz quintet, Le Boeuf Brothers.

With his debut jazz orchestra release, Assembly of Shadows (2019), Le Boeuf established himself as a unique voice with a penchant for cinematic majesty and melody-driven themes. Hailed by the New York Times for his music’s “overwhelming beauty,” he quickly earned two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition & Best Arrangement the following year. In 2021, he released a complementary sequel, Architecture of Storms (2021), showcasing his acrobatic saxophone playing while exploring the diversity of his emotions and influences. His sophomore album garnered two additional Grammy nominations for Best LargeJazz Ensemble Album and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Capella.

Le Boeuf's list of honors include commissions from Chamber Music America, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, as well as 7 ASCAP Young Composer Awards, the BMI Foundation's Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize, the Sammy Nestico Award, and the Copland House Residency Award. He has received additional awards from the American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, Copland Fund, YoungArts, Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation, New York Youth Symphony, International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, and Society of Composers.

Le Boeuf is the Director of Jazz and Commercial Music Studies and an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music.

“RADIANT, UNCLUTTERED BEAUTY” - The San Francisco Chronicle

“OVERWHELMING BEAUTY” - The New York Times

2022 Guest Artist

Vanessa Perica

Vanessa Perica is a composer, arranger, conductor based in Melbourne. Upon completion of her Bachelor degree in 2003 at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, she was awarded the prestigious Bob Wyllie Scholarship for ‘Most Outstanding Graduating Jazz Student.’ Other recipients of this honour include Linda May Han Oh, Mat Jodrell, Ben Vanderwal and Troy Roberts.

Recent career highlights include both national and international recognition. She was a finalist in both the Anonimus Big Band (2018) and ‘Scrivere in Jazz’ International Composition Competitions (2020). She has also appeared at the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth International Jazz Festivals. 

In 2019, Vanessa was a recipient of an Australia Council grant to record her debut album with an all-star lineup including Andrea Keller, Julien Wilson, Sam Anning, Mat Jodrell, Ben Vanderwal, Jordan Murray, Carl Mackey, Paul Williamson and Jamie Oehlers. Released in February 2020, the album titled ‘Love is a Temporary Madness’ has been critically acclaimed, reaching as high as number 1 on the AIR Independent charts, and number 3 on the ARIA Jazz & Blues charts.

The album was a nominee in the Australian Music Prize and AIR Awards, and won ‘Best Jazz Album’ at the 2020 Music Victoria Awards.

In February 2021, the ‘Love is a Temporary Madness’ Symphonic Suite was premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Vanessa Perica Orchestra at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 

Vanessa was a winner in the 2021 APRA Art Music Awards for her composition ‘Spaccanapoli’, and is a finalist in the upcoming Australian Women in Music Awards.

In November 2021, the Vanessa Perica Orchestra joined forces once again with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival’s Opening Night Gala at Hamer Hall. Featuring vocalists Kate Ceberano, Michelle Nicolle, Eddie Perfect and more, they performed compositions and arrangements by Vanessa and Chris Crenshaw (Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York).

“...there's "a new sheriff in town," she's packing heat, and you'd best listen carefully to what she has to say.” 4.5 stars - Jack Bowers, All About Jazz 

2021 Guest Artist

Will Vinson

Originally from London, Alto Saxophonist and Composer Will Vinson moved to New York City in 1999 and has since cemented his international reputation as a leader and sideman.

During his time in NYC, he appeared and/or recorded with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ari Hoenig, Marcus Gilmore, Chris Potter, Kurt Elling, Lage Lund, Aaron Parks, and many others. Will is a member of a number of leading ensembles, including pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s Quartet, Ari Hoenig’s Punk Bop and Nonet, Miguel Zenon’s Identities Orchestra, and his own groups featuring, among others, Lage Lund, Jeff Ballard, Aaron Parks, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Shai Maestro and Mike Moreno. In 2012, along with bassist Orlando le Fleming and guitarist Lage Lund, he formed the critically acclaimed OWL Trio, whose eponymous debut in 2013 was hailed by critics and listeners alike.

Will’s saxophone playing is executed with incredible power and dramatic sensitivity, and is characterised by his imposing sound and technique; influenced by saxophonists from Cannonball to Chris Potter, he nevertheless brings his own unique approach to every performance. Will's writing, and the playing of his colleagues, combines a great respect for the century-long jazz tradition with explorations into the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic realms of contemporary forms.