Simon Brown

Simon is an experienced pianist, bassist & composer situated in Beeston, on the outskirts of Nottingham. He has performed extensively across much of the UK in addition to southern Ireland & mainland Europe. He read Music at The University of Nottingham where he studied composition with Nicholas Sackman. Prior to this, Simon had been awarded the Nellie Greenhill Memorial Prize for the candidate to achieve the highest mark in Grade 8 Pianoforte by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. More recently, in May 2008 he won the Bernard Slee Music Award for his paper on Wagner’s opera, 'Das Rheingold'. Having graduated with a first-class honours degree, Simon has subsequently won an award with The Society for Music Analysis, together with a scholarship by The University of Nottingham’s Music department that has enabled him to continue his studies at postgraduate level.

He originally took up playing piano at the age of eight years old. It was later, at the age of fifteen that he began playing bass but then decided to focus his performance efforts mainly on the latter for the next few years. During this time he performed and recorded extensively with a variety of different projects. These included many successful groups such as Sun, Little Barrie, Color Wealth and Sweet Mary. The work involved several showcase performances including those at the Albert Hall, the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Ronnie Scott's as well as providing support for names such as the Fun Loving Criminals. In addition, he has also given assistance in arranging and performing with amateur talent shows at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

In recent years his involvements in a variety of projects have included studio, television and orchestral work. His latest recording sessions have been on the recently released album, 'Away With Melancholy' by The Natural Yogurt Band. Simon has also performed double bass with the COMA Ensemble as well as the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra; concerts have included works such as Beethoven's 6th, Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' as well as shorter works by Mozart, Strauss, Brahms and Mendelssohn to name but a few. He continues to enjoy performing and composing whilst teaching to a variety of people of all ages and abilities.