The musical savant has graced Melbourne’s jazz clubs for more than two decades, appearing in various trios and duos, curating his own shows, and as a founding member of electro hip-hop outfit The Melodics. In 2017, Blanes won the prestigious PBS Young Elder of Jazz award and received multiple Green Room nominations for his MIJF comedy show Hue Blanes and the Moon . The past seven years have seen him based in the Netherlands; however, Hue is now back in Melbourne to wow audiences and once again call the four-seasons city home.
Hue grew up in the small Victorian town of Healesville, where he began his musical life playing local fêtes, concerts and festivals. He received a scholarship to study at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS) and graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Music Performance, receiving the prestigious Billy Hyde Music Prize for outstanding achievement.
His teachers have included some of Australia’s finest musicians — Bob and Steven Sedergreen, Andrea Keller, Tim Stevens and Tony Gould — and more recently Fred Hersch, Eldar Djangirov, Aaron Goldberg and Jason Moran. Vocally, Hue has learned from Oliver Mann (Opera Australia), Mark Murphy (USA), and his teacher of 15 years, the late Ukrainian soprano Mira Khmelnytskaya.
Hue Blanes is truly “out of the box”. He has been involved in a myriad of genres and musical projects, all with the ultimate purpose of deepening his playing and understanding of music.
An extraordinary live artist, Hue has performed at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He is also the winner of the 2018 Lucerne School of Music (Switzerland) International Jazz Piano Competition.
Hue Blanes- Piano/Vocals
Phil Rex – Double bass
Aaron McCoullough – Drums
Kasinda Faase- Woodwinds/Vocals
