Shannon Barnett
Shannon Barnett (born 1982) is an Australian trombonist, composer and vocalist.
Background
Barnett was born in Traralgon. She studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, and performed in Australian ensembles including Vada, The Bamboos, The Black Arm Band, The Vampires and as a guest with the Andrea Keller Quartet, on the 2004 ABC Jazz release Angels and Rascals.
Barnett has also appeared with the Australian Art Orchestra, Barney McAll’s Mother of Dreams and Secrets featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel and Charlie Haden.
From 2009 to 2010, Barnett worked as a multi-instrumentalist and composer with the contemporary circus group Circus Oz, as part of the Barely Contained season.[1]
In 2011, Barnett moved to New York City to study for a Master of Music degree. Whilst living there she also performed with Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Pedro Giraudo, Cyrille Aimée and the Birdland Big Band.[2]
In 2014, Barnett became a member of the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, and performed with guest artists including Christian McBride, Paquito D'Rivera, Ron Carter, Maria Schneider, Joshua Redman, Michel Camilo, Richard Bona and Jimmy Heath, but left in 2018 to pursue her own projects.
In 2015, Barnett formed her own quartet with Cologne-based musicians Stefan Karl Schmid (tenor saxophone), David Helm (double-bass) and Fabian Arends (drums). They released their debut album Hype in 2017.
In 2019 she became professor for jazz trombone at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Cologne, Germany.[3]
In 2025 she released her first album as a singer-songwriter, How Much is the Moon?, and performed it with the EOS Chamber Orchestra at the Monheim Triennale.
Awards
Shannon was named Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2007 Australian Jazz Bell Awards.[4]
In 2020, she received the WDR Jazzpreis for Improvisation[5] and in 2022, the German Jazz Prize in the brass instrument category.[6]
Releases
As a leader:
- 2010: Country - Shannon Barnett Quartet (Which Way Music)
- 2017: Hype - Shannon Barnett Quartet (Challenge/Double Moon)
- 2021: Wolves and Mirrors (Klaeng)
- 2022: Bad Lover - Shannon Barnett Quartet (Toy Piano Records)
- 2023: Alive at Loft - Shannon Barnett Quartet (Klang Records)
- 2025: How Much is the Moon? - Shannon Barnett
As a sideperson:
- 2004: Songs from the Dirty South - Vada
- 2004: In My Head - Gian Slater
- 2005: Parallels/Layers - Marc Hannaford
- 2005: Angels and Rascals - Andrea Keller
- 2007: Rawville - The Bamboos
- 2007: Live at 303 - Vada
- 2015: Köln - Marshall Gilkes and the WDR Big Band
- 2015: My Personal Songbook - Ron Carter and the WDR Big Band
- 2016: Channels of Energy - Antonio Sanchez, Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band (CAM)
- 2017: Resdicovered Ellington - Dick Oatts, Garry Dial and the WDR Big Band
- 2020: Time Labyrinth - Simon Nabatov
- 2020: Songs You Like a Lot - HR Big Band feat. Hollenbeck, Versace, Bleckmann and McGarry
- 2020: Pyjama - Stefan Karl Schmid
- 2020: Marble - Hendrika Entzian +
- 2021: Subsonic - States of Play
- 2022: Fractures - Fabian Arends
- 2022: Lily of the Nile - LIUN + The Science Fiction Band
- 2022: Between Panic and Peace - Barnett/Anning/Keller
- 2023: Message From Outer Space - Meteors
- 2024: Mumbling On The Floor - Marek Johnson
- 2024: Raging Bulgakov - Simon Nabatov
References
- ^ Circus Oz: Introducing Shannon Barnett Deprecated link archived 2013-01-19 at archive.today
- ^ "Secret Society". Secret Society. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ "Shannon Barnett wird Professorin für Jazz-Posaune an der HfMT Köln". jazzstadt.de (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ "Barnett slides into man's world of brassy bands" by Andra Jackson, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 2010
- ^ "Shannon Barnett". www1.wdr.de (in German). 13 December 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
- ^ "Lehre erfolgreich beim Deutschen Jazzpreis". Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (in German). 28 April 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2025.