Tom Barton

Tom Barton is an adventurous and multifaceted vocalist, composer and voice teacher. His unique work is acclaimed for its stylistic reimagining, seamless blurring of acoustic and electronic boundaries, live looping and processing, and masterful vocal performances.

Tom is among only a handful of voice teachers in the world being trained directly by pioneer of contemporary vocal pedagogy, Jeannette LoVetri, to become a faculty member of Somatic Voicework – a groundbreaking singing training methodology taught to thousands of singing teachers, university faculty and professional singers worldwide.

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Tom has performed and recorded with artists including Barney McAll, Gian Slater and Invenio, Xani Kolac, Audrey Powne, Claire Cross, Stephen Magnusson, Andy Sugg, Diego Villalta, Nathan Liow, Nicolas Sávva, The RAaH Project, Astra Choir, and composers Kate Neal, David Shea, Byron Scullin, Tamil Rogeon and Andrew Byrne.

Tom has performed as solo artist and collaborator at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, The Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, Live on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show, and he has toured both Australia and Japan.

Tom released his debut independent original album Aspirations in 2014 to critical acclaim, with The Weekend Australian heralding it in a 4.5-star review as “a breakthrough in leading-edge jazz vocals … the arrival of a unique new talent”. The album was shortlisted for Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album in the 2015 Jazz Bell Awards.

In 2016, Tom and guitarist Diego Villalta released a fully-improvised album, Connections, recorded in Osaka, Japan. All About Jazz hailed the adventurous exploration as “a greater constancy to jazz’s restless spirit than any number of aspirational takes on the Great American Songbook”.

In February 2018, Tom previewed a suite of new compositions titled Reflections at a sold-out Melbourne Recital Centre show. In 2020, Tom independently released the first single of this suite, ‘Wherever I Will Be’ to a a 4-star All About Jazz review lauding the genre-blurring piece as “a spellbinding work that owes no allegiance to any single camp and needs no contrast or company to gain notice.”

Tom’s continued vocal pedagogy study with Jeannette LoVetri has certified him in all three levels of Somatic Voicework, while an intensive two-year program concluding at the end of 2024 will see Tom become one of a handful of Somatic Voicework Associate Faculty worldwide. This work is pivotal in informing Tom’s vocal innovation and mastery, and his teaching practice in both university and private settings.

Tom is one third of newly-launched improvised electronic jazz ensemble Voyage, which has two debut releases planned for 2024. Tom is also working a completely new project under a pseudonym, in a multi-genre manifestation of self actualisation ranging across electronic, pop, rock and folk genres.

Awards

'Aspirations' (2014) shortlisted for the 2015 Jazz Bell Awards Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album.