Gwilym Simcock. Photo Credit: David Forman

Preview: Gwilym Simcock’s diary for 2016 has tours with Pat Metheny’s new quartet, with the Impossible Gentlemen and currently with Celine Bonacina. So solo piano concerts are rare. There will be a late night one, at the It’s All About Piano! Festival at the Institut Francais on Saturday 19th March.Gwilym writes:

It’s exciting for me to have an opportunity to play a solo concert, particularly given that, for much of the year, I will be working in ensembles (both as part of Pat Metheny’s new band and with The Impossible Gentlemen). There is a great heritage of solo piano music within jazz and it’s great to be able to bring my own contribution to that to a broader celebration of the piano at the Institut Francais. I will be performing a range of original compositions and arrangements of well known songs from the Great American Songbook.

Performing solo piano concerts is something I have been doing for over ten years now. I still relish the challenges of creating a varied programme and of building up a complete sound alone at the instrument. The main element of any solo concert is the connection with the audience, because this is something I am so much more aware of in a solo performance than when playing with a band.

In each solo performance, I strive to create a strong narrative, using melody and harmonic progressions to elicit a variety of emotions in the audience. This is all underpinned by a driving, pulsating rhythmic element fuelled by my love of some of the great bands such as Weather Report.

Gwilym Simcock’s first at the French Institute’s It’s All About Piano! festival on Saturday 19th March at 10pm. INFORMATION/ BOOKINGS