More About MeI am a composer, pianist and drummer. I have worked as a playworker as well as a music tutor at a youth centre. I run a pianist agency called Piano Talent. I take part in and promote transit station. 'Audiography' From an early age, since beginning to play piano & percussion in music therapy, music has been an important passion for me. Performance and composition/improvisation have been means of expression and communication for me. I like music that takes me somewhere, that makes me feel confident, happy, optimistic, proud, that makes me shiver, or that reflects the mood I am in. Music has also been, and continues to be, a way of making friends. I like rock, esp Queen; I saw the musical "We Will Rock You" in London. I wrote about Queen's music for the films Highlander & Flash Gordon and was fortunate to receive an email via the Queen fan club from Brian May about Highlander. (www.brianmay.com). I heard Brian May play at London's Royal Albert Hall in May 2004 as a 'Friend' of the Italian singer Zucchero. My mum used to play guitar & sing folk music (songs performed by musicians like Peter, Paul & Mary, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez). Pop e.g Cat Stevens, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Crosby, Stills & Nash, 10cc, Supertramp Minimal (Reich, Glass and Riley). I have seen/heard Glass perform a number of times, as a so pianist, with his ensemble and with other musicians. I saw Glass' 1980 opera Satyagraha, and John Adams' 2005 opera Dr Atomic (both at the ENO in London). Classical - Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Chopin, Elgar, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Richard Strauss &Verdi. I love singing as a bass in various choirs. Boogie piano / Big band e.g. Jools Holland. Jazz e.g. Jimmy Scott, Miles Davis, Getz & Gilberto. Gamelan (site 1, site 2), Indian (e.g. Ravi Shankar), electronic music (e.g. Aphex Twin). Film/TV e.g., John WIlliams, Danny Elfman, Newmans, Howard Shore Musicals e.g. Lerner/Loewe’s Guys n Dolls (NT, 1997), Queen/Ben Elton We Will Rock You (London). I graduated with a BMus from Roehampton in 2where I studied piano with Edward Moore and composition with Michael Burnett. I wrote a thesis (supervised by Dr B Norton) on Philip Glass' opera trilogy; Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha and Akhnaten. I continue to writie about Glass' music. After Roehampton, I went to Kingston University where I studied film/TV composition. I have become increasingly interested in music for media, including film, tv and theatre. As a result of taking part in the international arts event/exhibition Transit Station I have worked/rehearsed with performance artists, dancers (see Performer & Audio Al'ka-mie) and film makers (see Nature). As a composer I produced the soundtrack for a short film produced by Right Charlie Productions (Death (G)row), a score for a short film (The Spotter, dir. Li, prod. Main, students at the London Film Academy) in 2005. I am also interested in the interactive nature of music for computer video games. As a pianist I accompanied musicians at Roehampton, including "Shades of Harmony" (an intimate female choir) and a string trio. I also helped a solo singer pass a grade exam singer. In late 04 I joined Scriptkiddies as a drummer (Mark on guitar/vocal & Jon on bass). In Feb 06, Jan replaced Jon and we changed our name to 1010. We split up in 2007. In mid 2008 me and Mark started playing together as a duo, with the addition of Sam on bass in early 2009. As Mars Fortress we have performed at various venues in London inc Grey Horse (Kingston), "Hope & Anchor" (Islington), "Dublin Castle" (Camden), Proud alleries (Camden), Comedy (Piccadilly) I worked with Sheen Mount School as a pianist from Feb-July 2005. I am very excited about becoming involved with providing music for mixed media arts-including dance/movement, performance art and film. Read more about me as a performer. © Rupert Cheek 2010 |
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