New York Music Group

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education

Electrical Engineering - University of New South Wales
Jazz Study - Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Master of Music - Australian Institute of Music

biography

Sean Wayland was born in 1969 in Sydney, Australia.

His was a musical family, his father's love of jazz enabled Sean to hear the music of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and others as a young child. His father's mother Muriel Cohen was a concert pianist and the first Australian to perform Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseax publicly. To this day Sean is still entranced by Debussy and Messiaen. Perhaps intimidated by living up to his family's talent, Sean chose to study the violin as a child. His interest in the piano increased and as a teenager he fooled around on the instrument. The fact that he was already an accomplished fiddler and had a busy schedule playing with school orchestras etc meant that he had little time to practise piano. In his final year of high school Sean met jazz pianist John Bostock. http://www.johnbostockmusic.com

At the time in Australia it was difficult to find out about jazz and John hipped Sean to the music of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane. After school Sean spent a couple of years at University studying Electrical Engineering, but the seed had been sown and he came to realise that his calling in life was to be a musician. Sean studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1992 and 1993.

He has had numerous piano teachers including Mike Nock, Roger Frampton, Judy Bailey, Paul Macnamara in Australia. In New York he has studied with Barry Harris, Kevin Hayes , Geoff Keezer, George Colligan, Sam Yahel and Bruce Barth. While at the Conservatorium he received the Jack Chrostowski piano award. In 1993 he was a finalist in the National Jazz Piano Awards at the Wangaratta Festival. In 1999 Sean recieved a grant from the Australia Council to study jazz piano in New York which helped him to relocate there.

Sean has worked for a number of internationally renowned musicians including : David Binney, Madeliene Peyroux, Ingrid Jensen, Cornell Dupree, Jesse Harris, Sheryl Bailey, Gerald Hayes, Dale Barlow, Justine Clark, Phil Slater , Jackie Orsascky, Steve Hunter, James Muller and Steve Mckenna.

Sean has released over 10 critically acclaimed CDs, featuring musicians such as Adam Nussbaum,Dennis Irwin,Seamus Blake, Chad Wackerman, Steve Kirby, Alvester Garnett, Jesse Harris, James Muller, Jochen Rueckert, Matt Penman, Donny McCaslin and Will Vinson. Sean has successfully toured internationally. He has performed in many countries including U.S.A ,China, Japan, England, Germany , Hong Kong and New Zealand under his own name. In 2004 , with his trio, Sean made the first instructional jazz DVD produced in China by foreigners.

As well as recording his own CDs he has appeared on numerous other jazz releases including albums by David Binney , Elana Stone, Tim Hopkins, Banana, John Mackie and Nick McBride and Luca Benedetti. Sean's compositions and arrangements have featured on albums by James Muller , Lily Dior , The Jazzgroove MothershipOrchestra , Matt McMahon and more .

Sean's most well known CD internationally is "Colossus of Rhodes," released by prestigious Japanese label DIW. Sean has recorded over 8 critically acclaimed CDs which feature his original compositions.