Clancye Milne
Clancye Milne is a Melbourne based improvising contemporary vocalist. She has performed across Australia at highlight events including the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Hamer Hall, the Stonnington Jazz Festival, the Melbourne Recital Centre, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and The Paris Cat Jazz Club to name a few. With a diverse array of creative influences, her music focuses on her love of poetry and melody through a blend of jazz and contemporary folk music. Drawn to the expression and spontaneity of improvisation, her compositions are forever growing, ensuring that no two performances are ever alike.
Clancye holds a Bachelor of Music and Honours Degree from the Sir Zelman School of Music at Monash University. During her studies she got to perform alongside Gerald Clayton, Tar Baby, Vince Jones, Alison Wedding and Chris McNulty. In 2013, Clancye was awarded the Monash University Jazz Prize for Best Vocalist and was then selected to perform with Golden Globe winner, Amanda McBroom and Michelle Brouman for the American Songbook Festival at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. She has studied under recognised Australian musicians Gian Slater, Sam Keevers and Michelle Nicole and with Jo Lawry and Sara Serpa during her time in New York. She also attended the 2017 Jazz Intensive at the Californian Jazz Conservatory led by Theo Blackmann and Laurie Antonioli.
Career highlights include the ongoing success of her jazz octet, which comprises some of Australia's best regarded improvisers. The octet explores re-imagined works of timeless composers, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Rodger's and Hart, Harold Arlen and Joni Mitchell.
Performance wise, Clancye has performed as part of Gian Slater's award-winning vocal ensemble "Invenio", a group that explores conceptual composition, extended vocal technique, fluid improvisation and choreographed movement. She is a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus where she has worked with conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Jun Märkl, Bramwell Tovey and Joe Hisaishi. In 2014 her song “The River Song” was shortlisted in the APRA/AMCOS Vanda and Young Songwriting Competition (top 50 of 3400) alongside musicians such as Lior, Husky and Andy Bull. Clancye was chosen as a key vocalist to performing on the opening night of the 2016 Stonnington Jazz Festival - a tribute to Australian songwriting performed alongside a chamber orchestra. Also that year, The Clancye Milne Quintet was highlighted at Wangaratta Jazz Festival on the Memorial Hall stage. She also chosen as the featured jazz vocalist on the track Opium Den from the 2012 Solid Light album “Passwords” released through Bad Party Records,
"....Hers is a naturally musical voice aided and abetted by impeccable pitch and an ability to move through registers effortlessly. Her jazz sensibilities are strong and she phrases with the maturity of a jazz singer twice her age......" - Chris McNulty
“…sublime vocal delivery from Ms. Clancye Milne, one of Melbourne’s lesser-known auditory delights” – Beat Magazine 2012