Piano Day Hull 2025 🎹

Ahead of Piano Day 2025 coming up on March 29th (the 88th day of the year) we have further details on the special guest performances curated by Humber Street Piano Sessions

The day starts at midday with a Piano Trail around Humber Street and Hull Train Station (running til 6pm) followed by student performances 1-4pm and four headline performances 6-10pm, including a world premiere piece  commissioned by Hull Jazz Festival especially for the day

Artist and student performances take place in the SPACE pop-up venue on Pier St (off Humber St)

The full event is free to attend with no advance booking required

Kate has gathered a bespoke repertoire through numerous collaborations, which she has performed internationally and nationally, most notably at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley International Concert Series, KM28 (Berlin), amexperimental (Huddersfield) and BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show.

Kate studied with Philip Thomas between 2003-2009 and has since studied with Ian Pace. She has played across Europe and the UK as a soloist or with a number of ensembles, including Heather Roche, Peyee Chen, Distractfold and Dark Inventions. In 2014, she premiered Steven Takasugi’s ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Laughing’ (2009) with Distractfold and won the Kranichstein Music Prize for Interpretation at the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt.

Vivek Santhosh is a multifaceted musician with over 15 years of experience as a performer, composer, arranger, and educator. With a strong foundation in Carnatic vocal and Western Classical piano, he seamlessly navigates diverse genres. Vivek’s artistic philosophy emphasises uniqueness, which is reflected in his distinctive compositions and performances.

Influenced by jazz and progressive music, Vivek formed the experimental Vivek Santhosh Trio, showcasing his original music. As a versatile freelance musician, he has collaborated with renowned bands and musicians globally, including Grammy Award winners and nominees.

Laura Cole is a composer, pianist and writer based in Leeds. Laura currently features on piano in saxophonist/poet Keith Jafrate’s Orfeo 5 project; as well as in an improvising trio with bassoonist/saxophonist Mick Beck and drummer Emil Karlsen; and on spoken word/piano in the Johnny Hunter Quartet.

A string quartet commission featuring Laura’s arrangements of saxophonist Ron Caines’ pieces – alongside her solo piano arrangements of Caines’ music – was recently recorded by Chris Sharkey, and will be produced by Martin Archer; this album is due for release on Discus Music in 2025. Laura’s solo piano album Enough, and the third album The Two Fridas by her octet Metamorphic, are also both out on Discus Music.

Nikki Yeoh is a creative free spirit who, although deeply rooted in the language of improvisation, is open to a range of music that leans as much to populism as it does high art. Since her emergence on the British jazz scene in the mid-90s, pianist Nikki has proved to be an improviser, composer and all-round adventurer who has continually sought to broaden her musical horizons.

In 2021, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra commissioned a new work, Nucleus, which Nikki dedicated to her mentor – the trumpeter, composer, writer and educator Ian Carr. NYJO presented this new work alongside a reorchestration of Nikki’s seminal multimedia work Speechmik X-Ploration with a UK tour in 2023. In April 2017, Nikki won the Jazz FM Instrumentalist of the Year award. In October 2024, Nikki received the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group (APPJG) Jazz Education Award for her outstanding contribution to jazz education over the past 30 years.

Nikki was Musical Director and mentor to the finalists of the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year (2020 & 2022) and was delighted to be part of the judging panel for the final in 2024. Nikki Yeoh presents her weekly Saturday radio show on Jazz FM between 10pm and midnight.

Shirley Smart is recognised as one of the UK’s most versatile and creative cellists – being equally at home and well versed in jazz and Middle Eastern music, as well as classical music.

Originally trained under Raphael Wallfisch at the Guilldhall School of Music, and Janos Starker in Paris, Shirley subsequently moved to Jerusalem. She remained there for 10 years, studying and performing a wide variety of musical traditions from the region, and working with artists including Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy.

Since returning to the UK, Shirley has quickly become established as a unique performer, and is in demand with artists such as Mulato Astatke, Maya Youssef, Neil Cowley, and Robert Mitchell. She also leads her own projects. She teaches Improvisation and Jazz at the Royal College of Music and at City University, and is also a visiting tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective.