Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

The Artemis Orchestra was founded by Gemma Farrell, with the hope of promoting women in jazz as musicians, soloists and composers. Less than a quarter of all professional jazz musicians worldwide are female and this is something which we hope will change for the better in future. The goal is that having an ensemble like this, which is predominately made up of professional female musicians, and also includes non-binary musicians, will inspire young women and non-binary people in Perth to consider taking on a career in jazz.

Since the orchestra first began in 2017, we have performed for the Perth Jazz Society at the Charles Hotel, at the Four5Nine Bar, the Ellington Jazz Club, and at His Majesty’s Theatre. We have collaborated with the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra twice, making up a band of WAYJO’s young women and non-binary members, with Artemis’ professional musicians, and we also performed for the 2018 and 2019 Perth International Jazz Festival and will play for PIJF again in 2020.

We have performed the music of Shannon Barnett, Kristin Berardi, Jenna Cave, Louise Denson, Sandy Evans, Gemma Farrell, Sally Greenaway, Alice Humphries, Ellen Kirkwood, Alana Macpherson, Kate Pass, Venessa Perica and Candice Susnjar. We have also organised composition workshops and reading sessions for band members, and will continue to do so in future. The band will be recording their debut album in 2021.

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured artists

• Jazz/improvisation by The Artemis Orchestra