This new duo brings together the talents of celebrated pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock and rising star saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz. Emma and Gwilym will be performing music from their exciting upcoming duo release Big Visit including original works and arrangements of a variety of other music from the Great American Songbook to Stevie Wonder! Their collaboration has been a cross-generation revelation, but possibly a predictable success - given they both had a similar significant classical and jazz training at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and Royal Academy of Music in London. The duo’s connection as labelmates on the ACT label makes a collaboration even more fitting, and they are very excited to see where their adventure as an established ensemble will take them. Their love of engaging, energetic and joyful music is evident throughout this set, and the intimate chamber concert is a perfect setting for this very special project to be heard!
Emma Rawicz is a young saxophonist, bandleader and composer with an astonishing musical maturity. At just 22 years of age, Rawicz has achieved a huge amount, including the release of two critically acclaimed albums Incantation and Chroma, extensive headline tours across 15 countries, appearances in high profile festivals and venues including concerts featuring as a soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and with the German SWR Radio Big Band at a sold out Berlin Philharmonie. She was the youngest ever Artist in Residence at Cambridge Jazz Festival and has received a number of awards and nominations recognising her achievements. Rawicz’s signing to the major jazz label ACT represented a big step forward in her international career, particularly with the 2023 release of her label debut album Chroma, which received an extremely positive response from both jazz lovers and critics alike. June 2024 will see Rawicz finish her studies at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. Alongside her studies she has developed a remarkably broad range of projects: from her regularly touring quartet featuring stars of the UK jazz scene, to duo concerts with acclaimed pianist Gwilym Simcock, through to her 20-piece Jazz Orchestra which has already performed her exciting original music at important London venues.
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.
Gwilym often appears on BBC Radio and TV in the UK. In 2018-9 he was the first 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 an 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. In 2023 he worked with and wrote for the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.
His Mercury nominated 2011 solo album Good Days at Schloss Elmau (ACT) was described as "dazzlingly fresh", "world class", "stupendous", "phenomenal", "a cause for huge celebration". 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 toured the world for five years with US guitar legend Pat Metheny with Linda May Han Oh and Antonio Sanchez. In 2019 Metheny released his album From This Place on Nonesuch featuring these musicians. This year he tours with saxophonist Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio as they celebrate 20 years. Gwilym is Professor of Jazz Piano at his alma mater The Royal Academy of Music in London and is about to release a duo album on ACT with recent RAM graduate, saxophonist Emma Rawicz.
“No young musician outside the pop world has moved as fast into the upper reaches of his profession as Simcock”. Stuart Nicholson, Observer
