Had a great time at Latitude at end of July. Fantastic experience to perform new piano version ofThe Driver with the immense Luke Wright to a near full house in the theatre arena. Hope we can find ways to perform it again!




Excited to be going to Latitude next week to play a new piano arrangement of The Driver alongside Luke Wright. Our slot is Sunday 27 July at 1.15pm in the Theatre Arena…
https://www.latitudefestival.com/artists/luke-wright-benjamin-oliver-the-driver
Video of Echolocations is now online. Proud of this work and to be able to collaborate with my awesome colleagues Drew Crawford, Gre and Pablo Galaz.
Video of Entail is now online. I created this new work with Will May. The work pays tribute to Philip Hoare’s writing on whales and the ocean, and is comprised of text taken from Hoare’s Leviathan, or The Whale.
Had a great time playing new music with friends and colleagues from the University of Southampton at Winchester Cathedral last week. I made a new piece with Will May and collaborated with Gre, Drew Crawford and Pablo Galaz on a new piece Echolocations. All played under the amazing whales created by Tessa Campbell. Thanks to Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute for organising.
Had a big month of playing the piano this January. Lots of practicing for 4 gigs…
First, music by Carla Bley ith my friends and colleagues Drew Crawford and Gre at a staff/student showcase at work. Here is the recording of ‘Wrong Key Donkey’, one of my favourite Bley tunes..
And then this Monday, again at Turner Sims for the Department of Music, I played my Love Letters with superstar Hannah Williams before conducting awesome students in Milhaud’s La création du monde.
I’m really glad I started playing the piano again more a few years ago, and grateful to friends who invite me to play or are willing to play with me! Practising a lot feels good and hope to keep it going this year.
Looking forward to playing new music with Gre, Drew Crawford and Pablo Galaz as well as a new poetry-music collaboration with Will May next week at Winchester Cathedral:
https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/ocean-giants-whales-and-the-worlds-they-shape/
Had an amazing time playing with Declare Sextet at Turner Sims a few weeks. My Uncle, Markus Kinch, captured some brilliant pictures. Was awesome to work with these amazing musicians: Nick Willsher, Tamar Osborn, Francesca Ter-Berg, George Balmont and Jake Long, with a very special guest slot from Liz Gre. Looking forward to editing together the recordings to share with the world and to hearing how the Yangon crew play the same music at their gig in November! Thanks again to British Council for funding.
I’ve been working on an exciting project for a while, a collaboration with Yangon based musician Itö and the Myanmar Jazz Club which he runs. The UK culmination of this British Council funded project takes place at Turner Sims next Tuesday, where a new sextet of amazing musicians (with Liz Gre guesting on vocals) will perform new pieces by a number of the jazz club and a big new piece I’ve written in partnership with Itö. The Myanmar crew will play the music again at the British Embassy in Yangon in early November. Hope to see you there.
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