Toby Wren plays jazz guitar and writes music.
Toby has a BMus (composition) from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and is currently doing a research masters there. He has written numerous works for orchestra and was invited to participate in the 2000 and 2001 Australian Composers Orchestral Forum and was a Composer Affiliate of the Queensland Orchestra in 2002. In 1997 he won the DIGF composition prize for his guitar piece 'Nebbish'. He has also written arrangements for rock bands (rhubarb, george, chris pickering, megan washington, blind) and 3 CDs of original material for his groups babel and the Toby Wren Trio.
Toby was a co-director of the group COMPOST which produced large scale new music events between 1997 and 2003. Toby is also a member of the Trevor Hart Quartet .

Since 2004 Toby has consolidated his output and focussed on his group, The Toby Wren Trio, for which he writes the music and performs. The group released it's debut CD "Umlaut" in 2006 and the follow-up "Everything Must Go" will be released mid-2008. Since 2005 Toby has been investigating Carnatic (South Indian Classical) music which led to a study tour in India and recent collaborations with Carnatic musicians. Recent compositions for the group use structures from Jazz and Carnatic music to create new vehicles for ensemble and improvisation.
 

“timeless and unaffected… sweet, bluesy and inscrutable”
THE COURIER MAIL
“a musician of extraordinary talent…” JAZZ QUEENSLAND
"a full ringing tone and suppleness of melodic invention”
LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE
“worth a listen… full of ideas“ THE AUSTRALIAN
“some of the best instrumental talent we got” RAVE MAGAZINE
“Every track [on Umlaut] is a masterpiece… a significant contribution to Australian Jazz” JAZZ.ORG. (The National Jazz Website