Artistic Team

WAYJO’s immensely talented and passionate Artistic Team are the foundation of our program. They provide the knowledge, musicianship and inspiration for our orchestras, ensuring that each musician develops and improves their skills throughout the year.

Gemma Farrell is a jazz saxophonist, composer, educator. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, a Bachelor of Music with Honours from the Queensland Conservatorium and is currently a PhD candidate and lecturer in jazz studies at WAAPA. Gemma was a member of the WAYJO Band from 2003 to 2007 and has been a staff member for more than a decade, leading the WAYJO Pathways Program, Progressions, (formerly known as Young Women in Jazz) since 2014.

In 2022, Gemma founded the Femme Composers Ensemble at WAAPA, a large ensemble dedicated to showcasing the music of people of marginalized genders. This ensemble evolved into the New Standards ensemble in 2024, continuing its mission of promoting diversity in jazz.

Her band, the Artemis Orchestra, won the WAM Song of the Year in the Jazz Category in 2022 for their acclaimed recording of “The Elephant in the Room.” She was also awarded Best Brass, String or Woodwind Instrumentalist at the 2020 WAM Awards, and has been nominated for 12 other WAM awards across various categories, including Best Jazz Act and Best Funk Act.

Gemma was one of 16 Australian musicians nominated for the Freedman Fellowship Award in the Jazz Category in 2022. To date, she has released nine albums as a leader, showcasing her prowess as both a performer and composer.

For over 20 years Marty has performed as a musician on Trumpet, Trombone, Sousaphone and Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, taught brass, theory, composition and improvisation in several primary and secondary schools, directed large and small school and community ensembles including the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra. Marty’s musical versatility has enabled him to engage in a diverse range of genres from New Orleans style brass, Latin, Jazz (small to large groups), Reggae, Ska, dub, funk/soul, as well as his own original music for quartet, sextet, and big band.

He often plays with his own Latin group, “Nueva Salsa Orchestra”, local Symphony Orchestras and is also in high demand as a session musician appearing on over 50 recordings as a performer, and or composer and arranger. He is a regular part of the pool of pit musicians hired for professional touring musical productions – most recently the Perth season of “Hair”, Tim Minchin’s “Matilda” and the Disney touring production of “Aladdin”.

Ricki Malet has been performing all over Perth for the last 20 years (including a residency with quartet ‘The Fix’ at the Moon Café for 15 years) with various bands covering lots of different styles and has toured extensively. With tours to Europe in 2002 with original band Prawns with Horns, New York in 2006 with the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra (WAYJO), Melbourne in 2006 with the Mace Francis Orchestra (MFO) and 2007 with Funk outfit The Roast as well as Australian tours with MFO in 2008, 2010, 2011 & 2013, the Daniel Susnjar Afro-Peruvian Jazz Group in 2017 & 2018 and the Jamie Oehlers Quintet in 2019. Also, most recently Ricki has played and recorded with the Australian National Jazz Orchestra at the Sydney Con Jazz Festival in 2017 & 2019 and been invited to perform and workshop students at The Brubeck Institute in 2014, 2016 & 2017, SHOWA University in Tokyo, Japan in 2018 and Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG) in 2019.

He has recorded 7 albums with MFO, 2 albums with trad jazz group The Hounds, 1 album with Daniel Susnjar’s Afro-Peruvian Jazz Group, 1 album with Australian National Jazz Orchestra, 1 album with Jamie Oehlers, 1 album with Kate Pass Kohesia Ensemble and an album and an EP with his ‘electric band’ Fat Sparrow in 2015 and 2017. In addition he features on tracks with many other groups including Descarga, Prawns with Horns, Drapht, Optamus, Odette Mercy and her Soul Atomics, Saritah and more. When not performing, Ricki also teaches at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Jess Herbert is a musician, band leader, arts worker, events producer, and a graduate of WAAPA with over 15 years’ experience in the music and arts scene in WA. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Perth Cabaret Collective and The Amnesiacs Big Band and is the Musical Director of the UWA Jazz Ensemble and WAYJO Northern Corridor Band. Jess is a local Maylands resident, and the recipient of the 2023 City of Bayswater’s Women in Leadership Award. She is also the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Lyric Lane Jazz Festival which is celebrating its 3rd year this August. A strong champion for gender diversity in the music scene, Jess has inspired many young female musicians to pursue a career in music and the arts and works tirelessly to represent peoples of marginalised genders in all aspects of her work.