Extraordinary concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi, is one of Australia's best-loved classical musicians, performing everything from Mozart and Chopin to Debussy and Prokofiev for orchestras, festivals, and venues around the world, from Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall. With a long-harboured love of jazz, and three celebrated albums of Gershwin’s music to his name, tonight Tedeschi teams up with jazz vocalist and violinist, George Washingmachine - and a cracking 6 piece jazz band - for Gershwin favourites and classic jazz standards by Cole Porter, Count Basie, Ray Noble and more.

“A common question about Gershwin’s music is: ‘is it jazz’? Many would say that jazz has to be improvised. But even then, jazz is often defined by its groove and a grounding in the blues, that uniquely American sound and form teetering between happiness and sadness. Based on this alone, it would seem that George Gershwin’s music is more jazzy than jazz, as his music is also the legacy of Russian classical music, Eastern European Klezmer and French impressionism.

However, his music has such a sense of harmonic inevitability and flow that jazz musicians - those inculcated in the tradition of the music of Black America, from the south in particular - use Gershwin’s songs (and his brother’s lyrics) to create jazz. George is a jazz musician and I am a classical musician who loves jazz, and so our duo represents everything that Gershwin is and tries to be - a music for all people, in all our complexity.” – Simon Tedeschi

About Simon
Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s most renowned classical pianists, and a critically acclaimed author. Recipient of the Young Performer of the Year Award, the Creativity Foundation’s Legacy Award (USA), the New York Young Jewish Pianist Award and a Centenary of Federation Medal, he has performed for audiences, royalty and world leaders worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall. Acclaimed by respected critics and peers as “true greatness” (SMH), Simon performed his first Mozart piano concerto in the Sydney Opera House aged nine, later studying and performing in the USA. Since returning in 2009, he regularly performs as soloist with all the major Australian symphony orchestras, and tours nationally for festivals, venues and presenters including Musica Viva Australia. Uncommonly for a classical pianist, Tedeschi also dabbles in jazz, and has co-written and toured internationally the Sydney Opera House’ Meeting Mozart children’s show (produced by CDP), and a number of shows combining words and music, for Monkey Baa Theatre, and with Australian theatre icon, John Bell AO OBE.

Simon also features in renowned director Scott Hicks’ new film, The Musical Mind, released in November 2023 (marking 25 years since his Oscar-winning film, Shine), alongside musical luminaries Daniel Johns, Ben Folds, and David Helfgott, and artwork by Loribelle Spirovski.

In 2024, Tedeschi’s major concert engagements include with Sydney Symphony Orchestra – in a new show created by Simon and Roger Benedict, ‘When George met Arnold’, exploring the music and late friendship of George Gershwin and Arnold Schoenberg; various performances around the country of ‘With love, Amadeus’ with John Bell, regional touring for Musica Viva Australia, and a new program for UKARIA’s Jazz series (Adelaide) with leading jazz musicians.

Simon’s latest album, ‘Debussy – Ravel’ with violist and conductor Roger Benedict, received a 2023 ARIA award nomination for ‘Best Classical Album’, adding to his numerous recordings for ABC Classics/Universal Music such as The Gershwin Collection, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, R. Strauss’ Enoch Arden, and concerti by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Grieg.

Alongside his performing career, Tedeschi is fast gaining renown as a writer of note, winning the prestigious Calibre Essay Prize for 2022 and Tedeschi’s critically acclaimed literary debut, Fugitive (for Upswell Publishing) shortlisted in the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and 2023 Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection. www.simontedeschi.com

George Washingmachine is an entertainer, working mainly in the jazz world. A jazz violinist and vocalist, he also writes music, and occasionally plays the guitar and double bass. George has played all of the major festivals around Australia and performs for many corporate clients. He tours regularly in Europe, appearing at festivals in France, Switzerland (Ascona Jazz Festival) and the UK. In 2015 he toured his group Feel the Manouche to Havana International Jazz Festival (Cuba); he has played Singapore Jazz Festival, and most recently toured across USA from New Orleans to New York and Seattle. Closer to home, George has performed nationally in “The Conductor & The Clown” with maestro George Ellis, toured with John Waters in his show, 'Bob Dylan Revisited' and more recently, with classical pianist Simon Tedeschi. George is also a visual artist. www.georgewashingmachine.com