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Lisa Young AU

Lisa Young is well known to World and Jazz Music listeners as a creative vocal stylist and improviser, incorporating Indian and African elements in her work. A longtime student of maestro Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani in Chennai, India, Lisa specializes in "Konnakol" - South Indian vocal percussion. She has studied South Indian music since 1994, both in Australia and in India. In 2010 she received the Monash-Pratt Post Graduate Award for her PhD Music Performance candidature at Monash University. Lisa Young Quartet's album "Grace" won the prestigious "Bell award" for "Best Australian Vocal Jazz Album" in 2007. Following that, In 2008, Young received an Australia Council Project Fellowship enabling her to further her study in India and compose new vocal works.

Her quartet premiered their new song cycle "The Eternal Pulse" at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in 2011, releasing the CD in 2012 In Australia and in 2013 Worldwide. The album was a finalist in 2012 Bell Awards Best Australian Vocal Album. It features compositions by Young in collaboration with bassist Ben Robertson and K. Mani containing passages of Konnakol and rhythmic recitations, layering Indian elements, rhythmic textures and ensemble dialogue, in an evocative journey of sound and song. Lisa is a founding member of all female vocal group Coco’s Lunch. Her composition "Thulele Mama Ya" won "Best Folk/World Song" in the prestigious Contemporary A cappella Recording Awards in the USA. Coco’s Lunch has recorded 6 CDs of original music receiving 2 ARIA nominations, and toured extensively, performing to packed houses throughout the world. Renowned as a passionate and engaging workshop leader, Young’s workshops use chants, songs, vocal percussion, and simple percussion parts to inspire singers to explore rhythm, harmony and improvisation. She works with song form, wordless pieces, and movement encouraging a great love of rhythm and using the voice as a colorful instrument. Choirs throughout the world perform Young’s works. She has recently composed commissioned music for the Australian Voices Choir named 'Other Plans’, which was performed throughout their recent European and Australian tour. She composed children’s songs for the television show "Playhouse Disney" (Australia, Asia, Playhouse Disney Channel), as well as theme songs/ soundtracks for ‘Conversations with Women Writers’ screened on SBS, ABC (Australia) and Worldwide, and 2012 short film “Happy Birthday” (premiered at Cannes Film Festival May 2013). Young serves as a vocal teacher at the Victorian College Of Arts, Melbourne, Australia. Lisa Young has performed world-wide, amongst others in: Melbourne International Jazz Festival, MELBOURNE WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL - Opening concert @ BMW Edge, Borneo Jazz Festival, POLYFOLLIA 4TH WORLD VOCAL SHOWCASE (FRANCE), SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE: Utzon Room Music Series Sellout concerts, TELSTRA DOME - Days In The Dioceses, 7th INTERNATIONAL TAIPEI CHORAL FESTIVAL, Festival Vancouver (CANADA), Voicemania @ Porgy & Bess (Austria), THE FAMOUS SPIEGELTENT, ‘One Year to the Olympics Celebrations’ at Australian High Commissions in Singapore, Laos.

Awards

2003 - Best "Folk/World" song for "Thulele Mama Ya" (with Coco's Lunch) in the Contemporary Acappella Recording Awards, USA. 2003 - Coco's Lunch album "A Whole New Way of Getting Dressed' finalist in Best Folk/World Album, CARA awards USA. 2007 - "Grace" album awarded Best Australian Vocal Album 2007, in the Bell Awards 2007 - Coco's Lunch "Blueprint" ARIA Award nomination. 2008 - Australia Council Project Fellowship for further her study in India and to compose new works. 2010 - Awarded the Monash-Pratt Post Graduate Award for her PhD Music Performance candidature at Monash University. 2012 - "The Eternal Pulse" finalist in the Bell Awards for "Best Australian Vocal Album 2012".

Lisa Young Quartet: Grace

Read "Grace" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2014

The Lisa Young Quartet released their third and fourth recordings in close proximity to one another. Of The Eternal Pulse (Self Produced, 2012), colleague Ian Patterson observes of the Melbourne-native Young's influences, “Young--a student of south Indian music for many years--has developed a hybrid improvisational style that combines the rhythmic contours of konnakol with a keen melodic sensitivity that owes almost as much to Indian tradition as it does to jazz. ." On Grace, ...

Album Review

Lisa Young Quartet: The Eternal Pulse

Read "The Eternal Pulse" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 21, 2013

Melbourne jazz singer Lisa Young has been a mainstay of the Australian jazz scene for over two decades, whether leading quartets or as a member of Coco's Lunch, the award winning a cappella group she co-founded in the mid-1990s. The Eternal Pulse--her fourth album as leader--marries konnakol with Young's personal take on vocal improvisation in an all-acoustic setting, accompanied by some of Australia's top jazz musicians. Young is undoubtedly in fine voice on these original compositions, her silky vocals earning ...

Take Five With...

Take Five With Lisa Young

by Lisa Young
April 7, 2013

Meet Lisa Young:Lisa Young is on a constant voyage of exploration and creation of vocal works using a diverse vocal language resonating from a personal sound bank aesthetic built over many years as an improvising singer.She performs and records with her jazz quartet, and with vocal and percussion group Coco's Lunch. Her most recent work, The Eternal Pulse, with her quartet, layers Indian elements, rhythmic textures and ensemble dialogue, integrating the art of konnakol. Her music ...

Video / DVD

Lisa Young Rehearsing With Gondwana Choirs: "Tha Thin Tha"

Source: Zzzing Agency
February 14, 2014

For the 2014 Gondwana Choirs National Choral School in Sydney, Melbourne composer Lisa Young was commissioned as Composer in Residence to write a massed choir piece for all the Gondwana choirs to perform. The piece incorporates 'konnakol' the South Indian rhythmic vocal language, which is a sophisticated style of vocal percussion. It was premiered as the finale in the concert The Concourse, Chatswood, Australia on Saturday January 18th, 2014. This video has been shot at the general rehearsal. The Saturday ...
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Award / Grant

Stem Artist Lisa Young Commissioned For The Australian Voices

Source: Zzzing Agency
February 6, 2014

Following the success of Other Plans (Lisa Young's 2009 commission work for The Australian Voices), The Australian Voices Choir has commissioned a new work from Young for 2014. Young is working on a choral arrangement (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) of 'Misra Chappu', incorporating the melody of this work from newly released “The Eternal Pulse" album under STEM. 'Misra Chappu' is in a 7/4 meter, and incorporates the south Indian vocal percussion art-form of konnakol. Aside from the beautiful jazz ...
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Award / Grant

Stem Artist Lisa Young - Artist In Residence - Commissioned To Write A Massed Choir Piece For Gondwana Voices

Source: Zzzing Agency
February 4, 2014

Gondwana Choirs commissioned Stem's Artist Lisa Young to write a massed choir piece for their national choral school. Lisa Young is Gondwana Voices 'Composer In Residence'. This piece was premiered at: Gondwana Choirs National Choral School Concerts, The Concourse, Chatswood, Australia on Saturday January 18th, 2014 during the “saturday concerts" The Saturday concerts were the culmination of two weeks of workshops in choral singing, conducting and composing, attended by hundreds of young musicians aged 10-25, drawn from around the nation. ...
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Video / DVD

"Check Your Pulse" Short Documentary Series Released

Source: Zzzing Agency
November 14, 2013

Check Your Pulse is the full documentary combining the 3 shorter documentaries that give an insight into the music of the Lisa Young Quartet, featuring Lisa Young voice/konnakol, Stephen Magnusson guitar, Ben Robertson double bass and Dave Beck drums/cajon. The documentary discusses the process of making of the quartet's 2012 release The Eternal Pulse, which uses elements of jazz and South Indian music. The footage features interviews with band members, rehearsal and performance footage (live at Borneo Jazz 2013). Check ...
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Video / DVD

The Lisa Young Quartet lauches "The Eternal Pulse" Official Music Video in celebration of International Women's Day

Source: Zzzing Agency
March 12, 2013

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Lisa Young Quartet, launches it’s official music video release, featuring the single “Tha Thin Tha" (Ta Din Ta) from their new album The Eternal Pulse. Filmed on a winter’s day at Ferdydurke in Melbourne, director Tabata Piccinelli’s vision was to weave the creation of the Eternal Pulse album artwork by artist Elizabeth Vercoe, with the vibrant imagery and the intense rhythmic language of the music. Piccinelli allows the rhythms to set the pace in ...
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"Her sophisticated blend of Indian and jazz idioms seduces from the start and never releases its hold." - Ian Patterson, All About Jazz “Totally engaging… her art is an awesome rhythmic control. Not to be missed, this is one out of the box.” - Leon Gettler, The AGE, Australia. “Young has developed a fine vocal instrument, dark and rich, with a rare confidence when improvising… Indeed, it’s a rare vocal album where the wordless tracks… are the most interesting. That’s the case here. But everything on this fascinating session is of interest” - David Dupont CADENCE Mag., USA

Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

Melbourne

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Vocal Tutor, Contemporary Music stream at Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, Southbank Campus. Northern Metro Institute of Technology (NMIT) VCE solo and group performance. Guest Seminar presentations at VCA, NMIT (industry day).