LOCAL JAZZ MUSICIANS EXCLUDED FROM 2026 SYDNEY FESTIVAL

Above image : Mongolian jazz singer Enji… Photo courtesy of the Sydney Festival

The following is a revised version of a Facebook post of December 15, 2025 which prompted 36 responses, primarily from jazz musicians and other key members of the jazz community. I’m filing on the advice of Sydney Arts Guide (SAG) editor David Kary, who read the post and requested this.

The Sydney Festival describes itself as “a major arts festival in Australia’s largest city, Sydney, that runs for three weeks every January since it was established in 1977.” It’s a non-profit organisation which relies on the support of state and local governments, corporate sponsors and private donors to deliver a vibrant, month-long event every January. The next festival runs from January 8-25, 2026.

As an active reviewer for SAG, I looked at the program to see if there were appropriate jazz performances I could attend. Many art forms are represented in a massive program: theatre, dance, opera, blues, classical music, soul, you name it. However, jazz appears to have a very minor role. I could identify only one jazz performance, and it features a female vocalist called Enji, who is performing at ACO On The Pier on Fri, January 16. If you’re wondering who Enji is, she’s from Mongolia and now lives in Germany.

However, am I naïve in believing that, in an era in which our local jazz musicians are flowering, we might expect that some of our leading jazz ensembles might get a guernsey on this festival program? Or, is this just the latest example of the phenomenon of marginalisation of jazz? Is it the case that the arts administrators who put together the Sydney Festival program – most of whom are invariably uninterested in jazz – simply feel that the art form of jazz is so unworthy of a major role in their festival, that they can wilfully exclude the city’s leading jazz musicians? If so, I feel they are seriously misguided, if not irresponsible.

At a time in January when many tourists holiday in Sydney from regional eras and international countries, wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for some of our leading jazz musicians to perform, and be well-paid, instead of playing for peanuts in small, local venues? On Sunday December 7, 2025, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music a cavalcade of brilliant jazz artists performed in tribute to the late pianist, composer and educator Judy Bailey. Any number of the splendid musicians on that concert were worthy of being part of the Sydney Festival. In my view it’s a crying shame that apparently none of them were considered for what is after all our own arts festival.

I was very encouraged by the 36 responses which this post generated. Unlike some Facebook discussions which can often see important issues trivialised, the discussion was intelligent and enlightening. I can’t reproduce all the responses here, but the following three examples illustrate the flavour of the discussion.

Lloyd Swanton, double bassist with The Necks, the group which was described in the New York Times in 2017 as “The Greatest Trio On Earth”, by the important UK jazz writer Geoff Dyer, wrote: “It’s most peculiar, this default institutional uninterest in jazz. No-one’s expecting the SF to be wholly handed over to jazz (though, gee, wouldn’t that be great, just once), but the consistent shunning of the rich, humanity-affirming rewards of the jazz experience is quite bizarre. I mean, it’s only one of the major artforms of the 20th century.”

The vocalist Bonnie J Jensen, fresh from reviews unanimously applauding her recent album entitled RISE wrote: “Eric, Thank you for writing this. I too, was tremendously disappointed when I looked at the Sydney Festival program and didn’t see anything that I felt enthusiastic about attending not to mention the near absence of jazz, and complete indifference to the plethora of world class local jazz talent. Quite frankly, coinciding with the well-acclaimed release of my fifth album RISE this year, I would love to have been invited to perform so that I could showcase my amazing band, which comprises some of the leading jazz talents in this country. It’s really easy to feel despondent in light of all this. Thanks again Eric for being the voice of our discontent, and for everything you’ve done for the arts!”

The pianist & composer Chris Cody wrote: “Thank you Eric Myers for drawing attention to this and calling it out. It’s a disgraceful situation. Who is the director of this year’s festival? Perhaps we can copy them in and put the question to them. It does seem to be a major aberration.”

Yes, who is the director of this year’s festival? He is Kris Nelson, a Canadian who has come to Australia after a decade in the UK where he was for six-and-a-half years artistic director and CEO of the London International Festival of Theatre. I wrote to him on Thursday, December 18, 2025, alerting him to the existence of the Facebook discussion.

I wrote: “Perhaps you would be kind enough to be part of this discussion, and explain why apparently no Sydney jazz musicians were thought worthy of being included in what is after all our own arts festival.” I was advised on the same date that my email has been sent on to Mr Nelson but, as yet, no response from him has yet been received.

Those interested in reading the full discussion on Facebook, dated December 15, 2025, should click on this link https://www.facebook.com/eric.myers.7165 and scroll down to read the 36 comments on the post.