I am a London based Musical Director and Pianist/Keyboard Player who has worked on many commercial theatre shows including Les Miserables, Cats, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Grease, Evita, Aspects of Love, Guys & Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, High Society and others too numerous to mention. Suffice to say I continue to have a lot of fun playing a great variety of material.
At the more “high brow” end of theatre I work as a Music Director on productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company. This has included shows in London, Stratford upon Avon, the USA and touring in the UK. And you know what, it is equally enjoyable playing music by excellent composers to establish atmosphere and to accompany sword fights and storms, as well as getting sucked into the exceptional drama!
As a solo pianist clients have included 20th Century Fox, Estée Lauder, Times Literary Supplement, Bartle Bogle Hegarty global advertising, Toscafund Asset Management, Quill Public Relations, Tulchan Communications, Kettner’s (Soho), Burley Manor Hotel (New Forest) and Manor House Hotel (Cotswolds) to name but a few.
I also play in small jazz combos…”nice”, as John Thomson would say!
I pestered my parents for my first piano lesson when I was five years old, and I have never stopped. As a teenager, and on into university, I started to work as a solo pianist in hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs. And, whenever possible, I have kept doing this solo work ever since, building up an extensive repertoire over the years – from mellow or up-tempo jazz numbers through to classic pop songs, with everything in between.
Most of the time I just play, occasionally I play and sing – depending on what is required/appropriate. I love the constant musical variety of my solo piano work, and the direct contact with people at the piano – building a relaxed rapport with clients is an important part of the job, and it makes a pleasant change from my “other” anonymous life deep in bowels of the orchestra pit!