Joe O’Connor is a Melbourne based pianist and composer engaging with improvised, notated and experiment practices.
Joe is currently exploring a delicate harmonic sensibility that unfolds slowly in asymmetrical cycles. in 2020, he released SOFT through People Sound, an album of electroacoustic studio compositions that “shimmers with tension and energy” (Joe Cummins: Loudmouth). His recent works include electroacoustic composition Partial Disclosure, performed by ACME for 2017 Melbourne Festival - Doppler, a co-creation with Alistair McLean performed by ACME at 2019’s Due West festival - The Past in My Present, a chamber work for Arts Centre Melbourne’s 5x5x5 program - a piano duo with Sydney based artist Steve Barry - Vignettes for Penny Quartet, premiered at MRC in 2018 and performed during their 2019 Musica Viva regional program - a recording with Svoboda/Green/O’Connor. Joe is currently developing his inside and prepared piano practice in a trio with guitarist Theo Carbo and drummer Tim Green and their debut album will release in 2021.
Joe holds a PhD in music performance from Monash University, where he researched ways that Ruth Crawford Seeger’s approach to dissonant counterpoint can inform his composition and improvisation. He is acclaimed for his distinctive approach to jazz piano and composition, having won the National Jazz Award (2013) and the Bell Award for Young Australian Jazz Musician of the Year (2014). He was a finalist in the 2016 Freedman Jazz Fellowship, the 2015 APRA professional development awards, and was a semi-finalist in the 2017 National Jazz Awards on his second instrument, the trombone. Joe was also the 2016 recipient of the PBS Young Elder of Jazz commission, which allowed him to develop a new work for drummer James McLean, Bassist Marty Holoubek and trumpet virtuoso Scott Tinkler, released independently as Confrontations, his second album following Praxis (2015).