Karen Sharp Talk - 6:00 - 6:30pm

Karen Sharp (sax) & Nikki Iles (piano) - 6:30 - 8:00pm

 

FREE entry

This event is part funded by the generosity of the audience with a suggested donation of £5.

 

Before her duo performance with Nikki Iles, Karen Sharp will be discussing her experience as a world-class jazz player, and how this has fed into her current studies at ARU in her career as a Music Therapist.

 

Along  with that, Karen has long been a busy freelance musician working alongside many top class British and American musicians such as Scott Hamilton, Sir John Dankworth, Danny Moss, Alan Barnes, Barbara Lea, Dick Sudhalter, Joe Temperley, Mark Nightingale, Annie Whitehead, Ellyn Rucker, Roy Williams, Tina May, Nikki Iles, Scott Robinson, Ken Peplowski and the great blues singer Elkie Brooks. 

 

 Karen has recently released her third album for "33 Records" entitled "Wait And See". Karen has been busy playing in the UK and Europe. She is writing new material for her band, as well as collaborating with pianist Nikki Iles and planning her next album.

 

"....an extraordinary talent." Phil Collins, BBC Radio 2 

"Karen Sharp is a most impressive young talent, effortless swinging tenor playing- a must for any size gig. Can't wait for her return." Peter Bronson. Bournemouth Modern Jazz Club 

"....Also making her debut, delivering a big, mature sound from her tenor sax, was the fantastic, diminutive Karen Sharp." Robin Paterson, Peterborough Jazz Club 

 

Bedfordshire-born Nikki Iles has progressed into the front rank of British jazz musicians. She began her career in the north of England as a founder member of The Creative Jazz Orchestra and composition continues to be a major part of her musical life. Playing highlights in the last couple of years have included The Julian Arguelles Octet, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Karen Sharp and Tina May.

 

A committed jazz educator, she is senior lecturer at Middlesex University, visiting professor at the Guildhall school and the Royal Academy in London, and Jazz Advisor to the ABRSM