The Sydney Con Jazz Festival returns this month featuring 140 artists in 26 concerts celebrating the best and future of jazz.
The program for the all-day festival staged across six world-class concert halls offers a dynamic snapshot of contemporary Australian and international jazz, from newly commissioned and cutting-edge works to good-time swing bands.
Headlining the 2026 festival are alto saxophonist Ben van Gelder and guitarist Reinier Baas, pivotal figures on the Amsterdam scene celebrated for their fearless interplay and boundary-pushing.
Other standout events include Switzerland-based Australian powerhouse vocalist and composer Kristin Berardi, who will be performing with Florian Ross (piano and composer) and accompanied by strings.
From Belgium, pianist Jef Neve will join forces with trumpeter Teus Nobel to deliver an electrifying duo performance.
Jazz big band and hip-hop will collide in Zero X Mace, a powerful example of how jazz and hip-hop can intersect to create something urgent, intelligent and uniquely their own.
Friendly Foe, a Double Big Band event, will showcase the next generation of Australian jazz stars featuring Melbourne University Big Band and Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra.
One of the world’s leading jazz composers, Florian Ross, has been commissioned by the festival to compose an extremely rare original work for the event.
A Music Cafe will feature all the winners of jazz’s major awards in 2025 on one stage: Sydney-based saxophonist Sam Gill (2025 Freedman Jazz Fellowship), bassist and composer Lucy Clifford (2025 ARIA for best jazz album), pianist and composer Lauren Tsamouras (recipient of the Jann Rutherford Memorial Award) and trumpeter Lachlan McKenzie (recipient of the 35th National Jazz Award – Brass).
Showcasing the best of jazz
The festival, a collaboration between Sydney Conservatorium’s jazz unit, the Conservatorium Open Academy and the Sydney Improvised Music Association, was formed in 2017 by much-respected saxophonist, composer and bandleader David Theak, Senior Lecturer in the jazz unit.
Theak, the festival’s 2026 artistic director, said the event was designed to be affordable, accessible and to showcase the best of jazz from Australia, Sydney and the world.
With prices from $29 to $169, jazz fans can immerse themselves in the full festival or purchase single tickets for the premium international concerts.
Theak said the festival was designed with five pillars in mind: international artists, interstate artists, leading vocal artists, large ensembles and student collaborations with artists.
“We have beautiful pianos, lovely acoustics and instruments, everything already here at the Con,” he said. “We wanted the highest possible impact festival with 140 artists getting paid professional fees in one location.”
He said they tried to put out an event that was not only excellent but also very social, with all the venues around an atrium so between concerts people could spill out into the bar area where live jazz music was happening too.
With so much talent on offer it could be hard to choose where to go, he said.
“We designed it so you can weave your way through the program and in most instances stick to your preferences but, if a venue is filled up and you’re forced to go and see something outside your preference, it’s still great quality.
“There’s serendipity about it. You could end up watching something that you didn’t plan to, but it could be the highlight of your day. Anything really can happen.”
Theak said it was hard to pick a favourite but he was really looking forward to the Kristin Berardi and strings.
“I think that’s going to be exceptional.
“And also the Dutch guys, Ben van Gelder and Reinier Baas, are quite astonishing. It’s only a duo but their use of texture and soundscapes and the way they improvise together, it really feels like a small orchestra. They’re quite amazing.”
The festival has an acoustic music philosophy, avoiding amplification where possible, leaving the control of the sound to the musicians.
Theak said that was partly because they wanted the festival to be cost-effective – so as much of the budget as possible could go to the artists – and also because the venues were suited to classical music and had a beautiful, pristine acoustic to them.
He was optimistic about the future of jazz, especially given the interest in the jazz course at the Con.
“I think the Con’s a great place for young people to be at the moment. They seem to keep turning up in droves, wanting to get in.
“We usually average between 130 to 160 students auditioning for the 30 places we hold every year. So it’s highly competitive.
“We find that people are drawn to the acoustic, organic nature of the music.
“A lot of young people are really interested in this music because I think it’s real. There are no screens. Our students are talking to each other, and they’re making music to build each other, and they’re spending quality face-to-face time in this world, which I think is a bit of a contrast from the rest of their lives.”
He said lots of students were graduating from the Con and studying in leading jazz programs in New York and Europe.
“We actually have several of our students leading the way at the moment, at the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School, the New School, the New England Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA.”
With fewer major festivals being presented and longstanding jazz clubs closing down, Theak said he was grateful to the University and its philanthropists for their continued support of the Sydney Con Jazz Festival.
His prognosis for jazz in Sydney and more broadly was that it seemed to be happening in unusual spaces.
“Conservatoriums are starting to step up because we have venues and infrastructure and philanthropic funding. We can afford to do something like this, whereas maybe private presenters cannot.
“Monash in Melbourne is starting to think of doing one and Adelaide’s also now got a full-time music venue that they’re presenting through the conservatorium.
“The other thing is that there’s a lot of underground things happening in Sydney that aren’t well documented. For example, on Thursday nights in random warehouses around the Inner West there’s sometimes 400-plus young people listening to full-blown jazz.
“All these other things are springing up. Like Church Street Studios in Camperdown puts on music every Monday night and it’s sold out every week.
“So the music is thriving but it’s just out of sight or in unusual places. They can’t seem to get rid of it.”
What: Sydney Con Jazz Festival
When: Sunday 31 May from 12pm to 9pm
Where: Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 1 Conservatorium Road, Sydney 2000
sydneyconjazzfestival.com
