Vocalist, songwriter, broadcaster, and all-round jazz superstar Chelsea Wilson is bringing high-energy swing and blues to Monash University Performing Art Centres (MPAC) this May for the Big Jazz Day Out.
Currently occupying the role of Senior Producer of Contemporary Music at MPAC, Chelsea is bringing together more than 150 talented musicians to five bespoke performance spaces in the Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts.
As both a performer and a programmer, Chelsea places high priority on homegrown talent, where she is passionate about “promoting, celebrating, and supporting original Australian jazz,” she says. “We have a long legacy in this country of incredible original composition…” she pauses reflectively. “And there aren’t many festivals that particularly focus on, and celebrate, our local jazz artists.”
Big Jazz Day Out lineup
- Coco’s Lunch & Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music students
- Emma Donovan
- Ngaiire
- Paul Grabowsky
- Fem Belling
- Andrew Murray Big Band
- Monash Art Ensemble featuring Sandy Evans
- Sandy Evans
- Freyja Garbett
- Cairo Club Orchestra
- Amadou and Friends
- San Lazaro
- Jazz Party
- ZEDSIX
- Horns of Leroy
- Jake Mason Trio
- Students and staff from the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music
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Chelsea’s passion for jazz began at the age of five, when her grandfather made cassette tapes of old records, though she didn’t quite know what she was listening to. It was an early musical education which made its mark, however, for it was at the age of 14 that Chelsea discovered Ella Fitzgerald.
The connection she felt then with the legendary singer led to a stronger, more all-consuming passion for jazz – to the embarrassment of her parents, who were much more engaged by punk music.
Chelsea seems to enjoy the small act of defiance these musical interests lent her adolescence. “I think jazz is, kind of, a little bit of a rebellion,” she says proudly. “But for me, through my teenage years, jazz was a source of escapism for me.”
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She credits her tenure as music director at Melbourne radio station PBS 106.7FM for broadening her jazz knowledge, while also heightening her passion for the artform. It was there that she began to broadcast her own jazz programme, Jazz Got Soul, a six-year journey that explored every variety of jazz and their various cultural impacts.
Today, she is the host of jazz programme Bent Notes on the LGBTQ+ broadcaster Joy FM, based in St. Kilda. Beside her radio responsibilities, Chelsea is the host of Control Podcast which, she says, “is dedicated to improving gender equity and gender parity within the music industry. We’ve got a long way to go.”
In her years of experience as a broadcaster, as well as an artistic director for numerous festivals, Chelsea has collected a large body of contacts and expanded her arts network across Australia. Yet she found that schemes to improve gender parity were not readily available, and so she conceived the Control Podcast as a means of spreading useful information to those within the arts community.
Beyond that, Chelsea will be spreading the tunes this coming May at Monash, so be sure to soak in the good vibes as the winter months settle in.
Big Jazz Day Out
Saturday 3 May 2025, from 12:00pm
The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts, Monash University Performing Arts Centres
Tickets here
This article was made in partnership with Monash University.
