This month, twenty-two year-old WAYJO trumpet player Elliott Hughes was awarded a prestigious JUMP Mentorship – Australia’s largest mentoring program supporting the career development of young and emerging artists. Elliott’s mentor is WAYJO Artistic Director and acclaimed jazz composer and musician Mace Francis.

JUMP identifies excellence in artistic practice and promotes young and emerging artists who demonstrate commitment and drive in becoming the next generation of arts leaders. JUMP mentees benefit from opportunities to advance their artistic practice through project funding, showcasing opportunities, professional skills development, online profiling and access to national industry networks.

Elliott is also an accomplished composer and he plans to use the mentoring program to work closely with Mace Francis to build a portfolio of professional-standard jazz compositions as well as learn more about the business of running his own jazz band.

Elliott was among 36 successful artists (eight from Western Australia) accepted into the inaugural program, which attracted more than 160 applicants.

In 2009 Elliott was also awarded one of WAYJO's most significant scholarships, The Jack Bendat Award for dedication and excellence to his craft. Elliott plans to use the prize money to increase his performance skills by travelling and performing with bands interstate and overseas. He has trained with WAYJO since 2004, performing for the past three years with the organisation's pre-eminent orchestra, the Composers Ensemble.

Elliott typifies the determination, youthful enthusiasm and sheer raw talent which have taken many WAYJO graduates to successful professional music careers in Australia and overseas.