TOM AVGENICOS

ABOUT

Based on Gadigal/Sydney and Awabakal/Newcastle lands, Tom Avgenicos is a jazz and improvising trumpeter, composer and music-maker whose work is exploratory, bold, and deeply emotive. Working in an array of creative contexts, often across media, his sonic palette creates spaces for conversation and connection to form the centrepiece of performance. Capable of conjuring a roaring intensity, then reverting to a near whisper, his dynamic performance approach involves the manipulation of simple motifs, ideas and songs to explore evocative spaces.

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With his personal improvisational approach, Tom has emerged as a vital presence on the Australian jazz and improvised music scene. He has released four critically acclaimed albums as leader or co-leader with Delay 45, Avgenicos Brothers, and Tuckerbox and can often be heard in performance with jazz elders Mike Nock, Paul Grabowsky, Kristian Berardi, Ten Part Invention and Barney McAll. Tom graduated with honours at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2018 and has been mentored by distinguished national and international jazz trumpeters including Warwick Alder, Phil Slater, Scott Tinkler and Ralph Alessi.

His awards and achievements include Best in Music and Dance (2024 Sydney Fringe Festival), 2024 Made New Commission (New Annual), 2022 Freedman Jazz Fellow, Margaret Henderson Scholarship and Global Mobility Scholarship (University of Sydney), the Regional Touring Grant (SIMA) and Sonic Futures Artist (SIMA), and recognition as finalist at the 2024 PDA (APRA AMCOS), National Jazz Awards and Generations in Jazz competitions. He is casual lecturer in the Jazz Unit at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

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 "the sort of outstanding jazz trumpeter who comes along once in a generation" - Eric Myers, Loudmouth

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"a bold new chapter in Oz jazz" - John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald​​

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