Jessica Carlton is a trumpet player and composer originally from Melbourne, currently living and working in Perth.

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EDUCATION

Jessica’s music education includes completing high school at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School; a Bachelor of Music Performance in Jazz Trumpet at Monash University in 2015, and a Master of Arts (Performing Arts) at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) under the supervision of Dr Jamie Oehlers and Tom O'Halloran. She is currently undertaking a PhD at WAAPA investigating neuro-affirming practice for teaching and practising jazz. 

 

AWARDS

Jessica won her first award, the Monash Jazz Prize, in 2013 for her composition 'Not Alone'. Since then, Jessica has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards including The Bell Award’s Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year in 2015; The Music Trust’s Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2021 & 2023; West Australian Music (WAM) Awards for Best Jazz Act in 2023 & 2025, Best Brass/Woodwind/Strings Player in 2022, 2023 & 2025, and Song of the Year in 2025 for Hope is the Thing with Feathers

 

RECORDED WORKS

Jessica released her first album of original compositions entitled 'Not Alone' in 2014 at age 21. After many years break (in which she became a mother), she recorded an album entitled 'Undeniable' in 2022 as part of a collaborative quartet, which was nominated for Best Jazz Act by WAM. In 2023, she recorded four compositions dedicated to her first child, for the Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York run by Dave Douglas. This recording was released as an EP entitled 'For Olivia'. In that same year, Jessica was selected as a Composer in Residence for the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra and she wrote a big band composition entitled Yemembra Moora.

 

Her most recent release, entitled 'Ekphrasis' (2024), is an album of compositions written as part of her post-graduate studies on musical ekphrasis (musical transformations of works of visual art and poetry). Jessica has recorded on albums by fellow Australian jazz artists including Holly Moore (saxophone) and Georgie Aué (vocals/piano).

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PERFORMANCES​

Along with performances in jazz venues across Australia, Jessica has led bands at the Melbourne International Women's Jazz Festival, the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, the Perth International Jazz Festival, the Perth International Women's Jazz Festival, and the Festival of New Trumpet Music. 

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TEACHING

Jessica's experience as a music educator includes teaching in primary schools, high schools, jazz programs, and at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts where she is currently a jazz trumpet and ensemble tutor.

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ARTISTIC FOCUS

Jessica is interested in composing music in a project-based manner drawing on different inspirations such as art and literature, and social and political movements. As an autistic woman and mother, she is very passionate about advocating for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion within the music industry and music education.

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Jessica lives and works in Boorloo (Perth) with her two daughters, husband, and cat.