Pianist/composer Matthew Sheens and drummer Ben Vanderwal.
Matthew Sheens
Matthew is a genre-bending jazz pianist and composer. He is listed as one of Fred Hersch’s “pianists you should know” and described in The Australian as “an outstanding pianist, stoked full of creative ideas and limitless technique… totally innovative and luminous”.
Born in Bowral, and raised in Adelaide, Sheens graduated with a Masters from the New England Conservatory in Boston in 2009 before relocating to NYC in 2011, where he has been based since.
Sheens has performed and recorded alongside musical luminaries including John Patitucci, Eric Harland, Kendrick Scott, Bob Moses, Donnie McCaslin, Nir Felder, Myron Walden, Ben Monder and Ben Wendel among many others.
He has performed across Australia, USA, UK, Japan, The Netherlands. Other highlights include the Jazz Hoeilaart International Jazz Festival in Belgium, Montreux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Europafest in Romania, Wellington Jazz Festival in New Zealand, Australia’s Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, International Panama Jazz festival in Panama City, and Festival Paax in Mexico.
In 2012 Sheens released his debut album, Every Eight Seconds, to wide acclaim and won the 2013 APRA/AMCOS Professional Development Award. Sheens released his second album Untranslatable (ABC Jazz) in 2014, and Cloud Appreciation Day (QFTF) in 2016, which won the Jazz Couleurs Hit Award in France, and American Counterpoint (QFTF) in 2018, which won Australian Jazz Work of the Year at the APRA Art Awards.
A versatile composer, Matthew has had commissions from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 1 premiered in Adelaide, in 2019), and has arranged and orchestrated for the Czech National Symphony, Prague.
Ben Vanderwal
Ben is one of the most in demand jazz drummers in Australia. In 2015 Ben received the WAM Best Jazz Artist award. Last year, he was featured on ABC Jazz as the artist in residence for July. Ben has performed around the world including tours of the UK, France, Ireland, India, USA, China, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Thailand.
He has performed with a veritable roll-call of jazz greats, along with pop and contemporary artists, including John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Joe Lovano, Vince Jones, Howard Levey, Madeleine Peyroux, Gilad Hekselman, Thirsty Merc, Megan Washington, James Morrison, Kate Ceberano, Wil Vinson, Ben Monder, Sandra Bernhard, Camille O’Sullivan, Mark Murphy, Wil Vinson, Lionel Rose, David Campbell, Nigel Kennedy and Don Burrows.
He was recently featured on Vanessa Perica’s Love is a Temporary Madness, which was named inThe Guardian’s Best Australian Albums 2020 and listed in Ted Gioia’s 100 Best albums for 2020, across all genres. In 2021 Ben performed at the virtual London EFG Jazz festival with recent Grammy winner, bassist Linda May Han Oh. He was also featured on a collaboration between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Fabian Almazan on Fabian’s epic Alcanza suite. Soon after he recorded duo music with Fabian for a Kennedy Center commission. Currently Ben is busy playing shows around Australia and lecturing at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.