Leigh Carriage is an Australian vocalist, educator and songwriter. Her festival performances include the Monterey Jazz Festival, Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival, Melbourne Women’s Jazz Festival, Brisbane International Jazz Festival and the Brisbane Festival. Carriage's 2013 album Mandarin Skyline, mixed and mastered by Grammy Award winner Helik Hadir, was nominated for a National Australian Jazz Bell Award, and Weave (2016) won NCEIA Album of the Year.
Carriage is a senior lecturer in the Contemporary Music Program at Southern Cross University, where she has specialised in songwriting, arranging, vocal pedagogy and ensemble direction since 1998. Since 1999 Carriage has coordinated a Visiting Artists mentoring program for Women in Contemporary Music, and the APRA AMCOS Songwriting Workshop Series for 17 years. In 2009, Carriage was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning by the Vice Chancellor, and in 2019 she was nominated for an Impact Award for Professional Service. She was awarded a PhD in Composition from The University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music for a dissertation that broadly encompassed her research interests in composition, performance, improvisation, collaboration and recording. In 2022 Leigh was awarded the Australian Women in Music - Humanitarian Award.
Discography
as leader
Weave (2016): Independent - winner of Album of the Year - NCEIA Jazz Category Review Mandarin Skyline (2013): Vitamin Records - (national and international reviews). Get Out Of Town (2012): Vitamin Records. On Impulse (2006): [Live]:Independent reviewed in ABC Limelight Magazine (October Issue, 2006) by John Shand. Until (2004): Independent. Just Before Dawn (2000): Rosebank Records. Liquid (2000): Independent.
as contributor
Jo Jo Smith, Live At The Blue Birdy (2009) Carl Cleves, Before Twilight Turns to Night (2018)
Publications
Books
Carriage, L. (2021) Weave: Complete transcriptions for piano and vocal. Wagtail Books, Australia. Carriage, L. (2021) Mandarin Skyline: Complete Piano and Vocal Transcriptions. Wagtail Books, Australia.
Book chapters
Heartlands: Kasey Chambers, Australian Country Music and Americana in Outback and Urban: Australian Country Music Volume 1. Australian Institute of Country Music Press: Gympie Queensland Australia
Journals
Carriage, L. and Wren, T., (2021) The Jazz Social: Jazz performance during COVID. Perfect Beat, 21(2), pp. 159–164. Carriage, L. (2019) Hybridity in the Music of Youn Sun Nah: Directions in Jazz Vocal Style, Australian Voice, Vol. 20, p. 1–7. Carriage, L. (2008) Southern Cross welcomes Katie Noonan, Voice of Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing, Vol. 21, no. 2, p. 4–5. Carriage, L. (2000) The Experience of Contemporary Australian Female Vocalists: An Exploratory Study. Australian Voice. 6: 31–36