About

For most of my career, I’ve been a freelance double bassist. The Covid pandemic, and not being able to get a mortgage as a self-employed musician, meant I moved to a full-time job in 2022. Initially I worked as a Music Development Officer for Music Generation Mayo, and then, staying in MSLETB, as a Youthreach Co-ordinator.

I am from Perth, Western Australia, and came to Ireland in 1997. I’ve spent most of my time here working as a jazz and traditional musician.

In jazz I’ve led my own trio, co-led the Boylan/Buckley/Evans Trio, and played with visiting artists including Terell Stafford, Jonathan Kreisberg, Tim Warfield and Soweto Kinch, and with fellow Australians Jamie Oehlers and Paul Williamson. In traditional music I’ve toured with Alan Kelly, Arty McGlynn and Seán Keane, and recorded with Sharon Shannon and Gerry O’Connor, among others. I’ve also toured India with Honor Heffernan, the Dominican Republic with Emilie Conway, and Ireland and Portugal with Chad Dughi.

I (and others) set up the Galway Jazz Club and the Galway Jazz Festival before moving to Dublin. There I completed a PhD in jazz studies in 2016 at the Conservatory of Music and Drama (then DIT, now TU Dublin), supported by a Fiosraigh Scholarship and the Dean of Graduate Students Award. My thesis looked at the Dublin jazz scene, past and present. I went on to lecture at University College Dublin, co-edit The Musicology Review, found the Documenting Jazz conference, run a jazz studies reading group, serve as Honorary Secretary of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (2019 to 2021), and act as book review editor for Jazz Perspectives.

I also taught music in primary schools and early childhood settings with Music Generation Meath and Louth.

In my spare time I still play music, currently mostly Irish traditional music on banjo. I play some chess, and vibe coding has allowed me to build small tools and apps, mostly for musicians. Some of them are on the Projects page. I’ve always been interested in computers, and I also spend a considerable amount of time thinking about how to be optimal in what I’m doing, as I’m not naturally inclined that way.

This website used to be about self-promotion and getting work. Now it’s just a placeholder for things I’m working on or have worked on in the past.

Contact

Email damian@damianevans.net.