Guitar: Justin Firefly Clarke
Justin is a guitarist and composer who has won awards at festivals in Europe and collaborated with world-class performers from all over the globe. Locally he is known for producing the Woolshed Sessions and Jess Chambers as well as featuring with Fly My Pretties, Fat Freddy’s Drop and with the NZSO. He is a masters graduate of the New Zealand School of Music and has degrees in jazz guitar and classical composition.
Piano: Leonardo Coghini
An outstanding new talent on the Wellington Music scene; 18 year-old Leonardo fuses his background in high-level classical piano with jazz. A highly interesting virtuoso with chops to burn and super-fresh ideas.
Drums: Shaun Anderson
After completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance Jazz at the NZSM in 2011 Shaun Anderson has been solidifying his position as one of the most in demand drum set performers across an array of contemporary musical genres in New Zealand. He has toured extensively throughout the USA, Australia and New Zealand with artists such as: Saving Grace, Depths and The Jac. He has released multiple albums to National and International acclaim seeing him and his bandmates nominated for NZVMA awards across the Jazz and Metal genres. He is a world wide endorsee of TRX Cymbals and CYMPAD USA. (Photo by Matt Henry)
Double-Bass: Simon Eastwood
Composer and bass player Simon Eastwood completed a MMus with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London 2012, where he studied composition with David Sawer and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He then spent several years working in the UK, returning to New Zealand in 2015. He also holds a BMus in Double Bass performance and Composition/ Sonic Arts from the New Zealand School of Music. As a bass player Simon is active as a freelancer and performs in a variety of contexts from orchestras and chamber groups to jazz, rock, and folk bands. As a composer he cites a wide range of influences on his music from popular culture to the avant-garde and has won had works performed by ensembles in the UK, Korea, the USA, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Lithuania, as well as in New Zealand.
