Kit Downes

Biography

Kit Downes is a BBC Jazz Award winning, Mercury Music Award nominated, solo recording artist for ECM Records. He has toured the world playing piano, church organ and harmonium with his own bands (‘ENEMY’, ‘Troyka’ and ‘Elt’) as well as with artists such as Squarepusher, ‘Empirical’, Benny Greb and Sam Amidon. He has written commissions for Cheltenham Music Festival, London Contemporary Orchestra, Ensemble Klang at ReWire Festival, the Scottish Ensemble, Cologne Philharmonie and the Wellcome Trust.

Kit performs solo pipe organ and solo piano concerts – and also plays in collaborations with saxophonist Tom Challenger, cellist Lucy Railton, composer Shiva Feshareki and with the band ‘ENEMY’. He is also currently working with violinist Aidan O’Rourke, composer Max de Wardener and in an organ trio with Reinier Baas and Jonas Burgwinkel. He also teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he himself studied and now holds a Fellowship.

“An exceptional soloist” – Wormser Zeitung
“It testifies to his world-class stature” – The Guardian
“One of the finest pianists of his generation” – Jazzwise
“Considerable chops and flowing imagination” – Downbeat