Steinway 2-Piano Festival

Julian Joseph + Gwilym Simcock

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Last Show: Sunday 19 th March 2023

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

Award winning piano maestro Julian Joseph returns to Dean Street for a unique pair of duo shows with celebrated pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock, fresh from touring with Pat Metheny. Both Simcock and Joseph have headlined Steinway 2-piano shows in past years, so to see the two of them together is sure to be special.

 

"The most significant jazz musician this country has produced for many years, perhaps ever."

The Stage on Julian Joseph

Julian Joseph

Acclaimed as one of the finest jazz musicians to emerge this side of the Atlantic, Julian has devoted his long career to championing jazz across the British Isles and into the far corners of the globe. He has forged a reputation beyond his formidable skills as a composer and performer, and is universally recognised as a highly knowledgable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador and cultural advocate.

Over the past 35 years, Julian has made ground-breaking advances for jazz in the UK and was the first to headline a late-night concert at the BBC Proms with his All Star Big Band. As a composer Julian has written original works for symphony orchestra, big band and chamber ensemble, and received major commissions from the BBC, the City of London Festival and the London Jazz Festival.

His operas and dance works have given children a rare opportunity to perform in and discover both classical and jazz music. Trench Brothers (2014) – dramatised Black British soldiers’ experiences of the First World War and his new operatic work, based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, was premiered to critical acclaim at London’s Southbank Centre in the autumn of 2018.

Julian has been at the forefront of initiatives to introduce jazz into mainstream music education, culminating in the foundation of his own Jazz Academy in 2013. He has published his first book, “Music of Initiative”, in 2018, sharing insights into the philosophy and practice of jazz performance.

Gwilym Simcock

Pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock moves effortlessly between jazz and classical creating a sound that is very much his own working with orchestras, choirs, big bands, small ensembles and musicians across the spectrum of music. His 2011 solo album 'Good Days at Schloss Elmau” (ACT) was described as "dazzlingly fresh", "world class", "stupendous", "phenomenal", "a cause for huge celebration".

Gwilym often appears on BBC Radio and TV in the UK. In 2018-9 he was Artist in Residence with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg. Since 2018 he has worked regularly with the LSO Percussion Ensemble with whom he recorded and album “Quartet, Quintet”. In 2021 he worked with the Swedish orchestra OModernt for whom he arranged and recorded “Milestones” based on the music of Miles Davis featuring trombonist Nils Landgren. In 2022 he was commissioned to write a new work “When Time Has Told” for the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

2014 saw the release of two highly acclaimed albums on ACT “Instrumation” with the City of London Sinfonia and “Reverie at Schloss Elmau” a duo with bassist Yuri Goloubev. In 2019 he released a solo album on ACT “Near and Now” dedicated to some early influences. Gwilym co-leads Anglo-American Supergroup 'The Impossible Gentlemen' with guitarist Mike Walker and has recorded three highly acclaimed albums with the band on Basho Records. He regularly tours the world with US guitar legend Pat Metheny with Linda May Han Oh and Antonio Sanchez. In 2019 Metheny released his album “From This Place” featuring these musicians on Nonesuch. Gwilym is Professor of Jazz Piano at his alma mater The Royal Academy of Music.

“No young musician outside the pop world has moved as fast into the upper reaches of his profession as Simcock”. Stuart Nicholson, Observer