Christopher Skepper

G'day. My name is Chris Skepper and I am a professional trumpet player in Melbourne Australia. I have my own 18 piece big band which plays original material and works all around Melbourne. I also play in other big bands and smaller jazz, R&B bands and backing bands.

I am the head of music at Kingswood College where I conduct the Senior Concert and Big Bands.

My own Big Band (The Chris Skepper Big Band) consists of 18 professional musicians who are some of Melbournes finest improvisers. The band's repertoire is all original music written by myself and is highly contemporary and imporovised. It ranges from Swing to Rock to Funk to Ballads and quite often the pieces will segue into each other. The pieces are never played the same twice. The musicians are free to improvise as much as they like and to add their own backing lines to solos.

The band puts on 4 major concerts and does different corporate events throughout the year.

If you want to know more about my music or where I am playing with my big band then email me and I will get back to you straight away.

I am currently playing in a contemporary improvisation quartet called SHOL. The other players in the band are: Andrew Harrison - keyboard, John O'Hagan - double bass and Chris Lewis - drums and assorted percussion. I use effect pedals on the trumpet (delay, octave divider, chorus and flanger) and we will play for up to an hour non stop. It's very tiring and tough on the chops but it's a lot of fun.

I am also writing a lot of music for the junior school orchestra where I teach. The instrumentation is designed so it can be changed to what is in the orchestra for that year. It is not your standard type orchestra as all instruments are accepted and that the standard is for children who have been learning for 6 months to 3 years.

If you interested in discussing these compositions then please get in contact with me.

Chris