Jessica Carlton

Biography

Jessica Carlton is a trumpet player and composer originally from Melbourne, currently living and working in Perth. She has been nominated for prestigious awards including the Music Trust’s Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2021 and 2023; the Bell Award’s Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year in 2015; West Australian Music (WAM)’s ‘Best Brass/Woodwind/Strings Player’ in 2022. Jessica was also selected as a Composer in Residence for the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra in 2023. 

Jessica’s music education includes studying at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School; a Bachelor of Music Performance in jazz trumpet from Monash University in 2015, and postgraduate research on scholarship at WAAPA under the supervision of Dr Jamie Oehlers towards a Master of Arts (Performing Arts). 

At 22, Jessica released her first album of original compositions entitled Not Alone (2014). In 2022, she recorded an album entitled Undeniable (2022) as part of a collaborative quartet, which was nominated for Best Jazz Act by WAM. In 2023, she released an EP titled For Olivia with four compositions dedicated to her first daughter. In 2024, Jessica released Ekphrasis, which is the album composed as part of her postgraduate research on ‘musical ekphrasis’. She has also recorded on albums by fellow Australian jazz artists including Holly Moore (saxophone) and Georgie Aué (vocals/piano). 

Jessica has led bands at the Melbourne International Women's Jazz Festival, the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, and the Perth International Jazz Festival, and has performed extensively in venues and festivals across Australia. This year she performed a virtual set for the Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York run by Dave Douglas. 

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 jazz ensemble tutor. 

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.