The Open Academy’s Summer term starts in February at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The program offers many short courses designed to give adults the skills and knowledge to pursue their musical interests, curiosity or to find a creative outlet for their talents in a collaborative group learning environment catering for beginners right through to experienced musicians.

The Jazz Piano Basics course starts Monday 6 February with Kevin Hunt, a piano player who grew up with music in the house. Taught to rock- blues by his older brothers at home, and boogie-woogie by his father, he realised he needed to learn jazz piano after hearing Oscar Peterson on a vinyl record. A regular on the Sydney jazz scene, Kevin Hunt’s first jazz teachers were Chuck Yates, John Speight and David Levy. In 1981 he studied jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Don Burrows, Judy Bailey, Paul MacNamara, Roger Frampton, George Golla, Miroslav Bukovsky and Dick Montz. Since the mid 1980s, Kevin has led his own jazz ensembles, specializing in performances of his own compositions as well as classical composers JS Bach, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Leonard Bernstein. With Lawrie Thompson on drums and Gary Holgate on bass, Kevin led the successful JS Bach Trio, winning ABC FM’s Listeners Choice Award in 1998 for their recording Kevin Hunt Plays JS Bach.

Kevin’s composition and performance experience was enriched by regular work with the Kinetic Energy Theatre Company, and as a mature-age student, Kevin studied composition at the Sydney Conservatorium with Martin Wesley Smith, Greg Schirmer, Gillian Whitehead, and Trevor Pearce. In 1993 he also studied with Josef Zawinul in Vienna. He completed a Master of Music in Jazz Performance in 2004 under the supervision of Bill Motzing and Phil Slater with piano tuition from Stephanie McCallum. Currently, he performs with the Kevin Hunt Trio, Simon Tedeschi, Emma Pask and Marie Wilson.

This course will gather the important harmonic tools that are used in all jazz style. The students will play tunes like ‘Mack The Knife’ and ‘The Preacher’, as well as the Blues to slowly piece together the skills covered during this course. If you’ve got knowledge of the notes on the keyboard, scales and that you’re able to read treble and bass clefs, but most of all the curiosity of a cat and time to practice, then sign up for this course.

What: Kevin Hunt’s Jazz Piano Classes @ Con Open Academy’s Summer

Where: Sydney Conservatorium of Music,

When: From 6 February to 30 March

To find out more CLICK HERE