The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) is considered by many to be one of Europe’s foremost contemporary big bands. Founder/Director Tommy Smith established the SNJO in 1995 as a not-for-profit organisation with a crystal clear artistic vision and core values of versatility, discipline and expression. It should therefore come as no surprise that many of the leading lights in world jazz have enthusiastically shared the stage with the SNJO. People like Jazzmeia Horn, Cleo Laine, Jacqui Dankworth, John Scofield, Gary Burton, Bobby Watson, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Bob Mintzer, Keith Tippett, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke and many more have all joined the orchestra to explore virtually every room in the house of the jazz. The SNJO repertoire has included re-imaginings of works by the great, the good and the gigantic, including Weather Report, Herman, Rich, Carter, Strayhorn, Goodman, Kenton, Basie, Gillespie, Mingus, Jaco, Corea, Monk, Metheny, Shorter, Miles and Coltrane. They have also recorded vivid interpretations of Mozart, Prokofiev, Piazzolla, Gershwin and Ellington to rave reviews and have built a growing library of original compositions underpinned by a deep understanding and appreciation of improvisation. The mission of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra is to cultivate and expand the community for orchestral jazz, through creative performance and education, inspiring and growing audiences, enhancing the reputation of jazz from Scotland on the world stage. Please get in touch below to learn more about booking opportunities for the following SNJO touring shows. Apr 2024 RSNO Collaboration - RHAPSODY IN BLUE with Makoto Ozone Sep 2024 Kurt Elling Swings The Classics Nov 2024 New Perspectives of Ellingtonia (new commissions) Jan 2025 Discovering The Genius of Dundee’s Jimmy Duechar Mar 2025 ‘21 SPICES’ featuring Indian Percussionist Trilok Gurtu

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The internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning vocalist Claire Martin celebrates the music of ‘The First Lady of Song’, Ella Fitzgerald Featuring classic versions of Ella’s most famous songs. The Lady Ella program includes Claire Martin with her conductor/MD Callum Au, pianist, and all scores for 15-25 players with classic repertoire from the Great American Songbook, including 'That Old Black Magic,' 'Too Darn Hot,' 'Too Close for Comfort,' and 'Beginning to See the Light'; one day of rehearsal; and rehearsal and concert. Callum Au is fast becoming one of the UK's most in-demand arrangers and conductors, and his brand-new arrangements for this project truly celebrate the first lady of jazz. Linn recording artist Claire Martin has to worldwide critical acclaim, established herself as a tour de force on the UK jazz scene gaining many awards, including winning the British Jazz Awards eight times during her career which spans over three decades. In 2018 she was the proud recipient of the BASCA Gold Badge Award for her contribution to jazz. Claire became a professional singer at 19 and two years later realised her dream of singing at Ronnie Scott’s legendary jazz club in London Soho. Signed to the prestigious Glasgow based Linn Records in 1990, Claire has since released 18 CDs with the label, collaborating with musical luminaries including Martin Taylor, John Martyn, Stephane Grappelli, Kenny Barron, Richard Rodney Bennett and Jim Mullen on many of these recordings. Claire has performed worldwide with her trio and, until his death in 2012, worked extensively with the celebrated composer and pianist Sir Richard Rodney Bennett in a cabaret duo setting both in England and the US where they played to sell-out houses at venues including the prestigious Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Claire will release her new album ‘I Watch You Sleep’ which is a collaboration with the American conductor and pianist Scott Dunn and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2023. Claire appears as a featured soloist with the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Claire co-presented BBC Radio 3’s flagship jazz program ‘Jazz Line Up’ from 2000 to 2017 and interviewed many of her musical heroes such as Pat Metheny and the late Michael Brecker. At the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2011 Claire was delighted to be awarded an OBE for her Services to Jazz. Claire was thrilled to win both the 2009 and 2010 ‘Best Vocalist’ category at the British Jazz Awards and toured extensively throughout the UK, Scandinavia, Russia and China, appearing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and her world-class trio.

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Celebrated British composer Paul Mottram presents his latest orchestral project, 'Shakespeare Reimagined.' Featuring Funkgurus artists Claire Martin and Tim Garland, the show features songs connected to Shakespeare and the live premiere of his highly praised concert work, 'Seven Ages of Man.' Coming soon to Funkgurus

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Mark McGann, Joe Stilgoe and Claire Martin take us chronologically from Lennon and McCartney’s first meeting in 1957 to the end of The Beatles in 1970. In 2012 Mark McGann was commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to write a scripted concert about the songwriting relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. ‘The Two of Us’ - The Lennon and McCartney Songbook, has since been presented by various orchestras, including the RLPO, Northern Sinfonia Newcastle, Sibelius Orchestra Lahti, Finland, and most recently for the fourth time with the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin. It is scheduled to be performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & RTE Orchestra in 2025. The two-act evening takes us chronologically from Lennon and McCartney’s first meeting in 1957 to the end of the Beatles in 1970. In Dublin last Friday the public once again rose to their feet as one, roaring appreciation for this exciting, funny, poignant and truly memorable evening. Invariably sold out within a few days of tickets becoming available regardless of venue size, it is a truly unforgettable experience for audiences and performers alike, one that weaves a brilliant original score by Andrew Cottee with acted sequences by three vocalists/actors (two male, one female) to shed light on the true story behind these globally loved compositions and their composers relationship. This wonderful show, whose tour de force is surely provided by conductor, orchestra and its many iconic songs including Penny Lane / A Day in the Life In My Life / Eleanor Rigby / Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds / All You Need is Love / Yesterday / The Long and Winding Road / In My Life / Strawberry Fields Forever / Hey Jude / Ticket to Ride / The Fool on the Hill With sold-out performances in Liverpool, Gateshead, Dublin and Finland, it is a truly unforgettable experience for audiences and performers alike, one that weaves a brilliant original score by Andrew Cottee with acted sequences by the three vocalists/actors to shed light on the true story behind these globally loved compositions and their composers’ relationship.

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A giant of the jazz improv world, Tim Garland brings together his eclectically-minded trio and the equally open-minded orchestra Britten Sinfonia for the most ambitious project of his stellar career. Full of free-flowing grooves with classical influences and irresistible Turkish rhythms, the Lighthouse Trio’s new album Moment of Departure was recorded with Britten Sinfonia. This special concert includes a work resulting from the unique and longstanding relationship between Britten Sinfonia’s leader Thomas Gould and Gwilym Simcock and Tim Garland. The Forever Seed, a new orchestral piece features Gould, Simcock and Sirkis as soloists, conducted by Garland. Also featured is a brand-new work from Simcock for himself, Britten Sinfonia, and Tim Garland, and Jonathan Brigg's superb tribute to Thelonius Monk, written for Britten Sinfonia’s strings in 2022. His first break as a saxophonist was joining Ronnie Scott's band at age 23. Later he was to join Chick Corea as a regular member of several globe-trotting projects over a seventeen-year period including The Vigil. Playing tenor and soprano saxes, bass clarinet, and flute, he also won a Grammy for his symphonic orchestrations on Corea’s “The New Crystal Silence” album from 2007. Garland has fulfilled commissions from several of the world's top orchestras, including a double concerto from the LSO, a piano concerto for Gwilym Simcock from The Royal Northern Sinfonia, with whom he went on to record three CDs, a cello and sax concerto from the CBSO, and a sax concerto from the BBC Concert Orchestra. His concert works continue to celebrate the fertile ground between modern composition and jazz. His creative arranging skills have won much praise from such diverse artists as Jean Luc Ponty, John Patitucci, The Royal Holloway and Westminster Choirs, the Catalan National Cobla Group, the LPO, the London Session Orchestra, NYJO as well as Chick Corea. His work is often inspired by, but not limited to, the jazz idiom, whilst his celebrated virtuosity as a saxophonist maintains his position as one of the UK’s most unique and authentic jazz voices. In 2016 he premiered “Re: Focus” (a reimagining of the Getz /Sauter project of 1962 ‘Focus’) to a full house at London’s Wigmore Hall, which in 2020 has been released for public purchase. “Luca’s Winter”, a 100-minute work for big band, was performed at Manchester’s Royal Northern College Of Music (where he held an international post as a research fellow) in which he acted as conductor and narrator. As a band leader and co-leader, he is responsible for much of the output of the groups; Lammas, The Underground Orchestra, Storms / Nocturnes (feat. Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer), Acoustic Triangle, the last few years of Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, and Lighthouse, (feat; Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis). He has won awards and nominations from The Parliamentary Jazz Awards, The Worshipful Company Of Musicians, BASCA’s British Composer Awards, and won CD of the year in 2016 from Jazzwise for his album ONE.

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Singer/Songwriter Ola Onabulé, is one of the finest vocalists and contemporary artists of our time, and as a performer, he has gained worldwide critical acclaim as a singer, songwriter and producer, With an enviable career as an international touring performer. Ola’s meticulous attention to detail in his arrangements and production as well as the support from Sennheiser/Neumann have contributed to the manifestation of an impressive catalogue of recordings. So embodies the artistic – and entrepreneurial – philosophy of Onabulé, Ola is a rugged individualist, a deeply soulful musician who has absorbed the surround sound of his youth – jazz, world, Soul and Pop – and incorporated key elements into his distinctive style. Onabulé's past decade has taken him in the direction of collaborations with some of the world’s foremost Big Bands, including the Grammy Award-winning Big Bands from Cologne (The WDR Big Band), Stuttgart (The SWR Big Band) and Frankfurt (The HR Big Band), Denmark (Danish Radio Big Band) Big Band Jazz De Mexico (Mexico) Zurich Jazz Orchestra (Switzerland), UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra (Finland), Oulu All Star Big Band (Finland) The Sicilian Jazz Orchestra (Sicily),, Gotland Big Band (Sweden), Bohuslan Big Band (Sweden) Latvian Radio Big Band (Latvia), DIOC Big Band (Norway). New Wind Jazz Orchestra (Estonia) and his experience extends to symphony orchestras such as the Orquesta Liepāja Symphony (Latvia), The Symphonic Orchestra of San Luis Potosi, (Mexico), Västerås Sinfonietta (Sweden), Orchestra della Magna Grecia (Italy), The Babelsberg Film Orchestra Potsdam (Germany). Onabulé has new projects on the way with many other new ensembles including Bundeswehr Big Band (Germany), Algarve Jazz Orchestra (Portugal)amongst others which demonstrates Ola’s ability to adapt and collaborate with different artists and world class musicians. Ola’s reach is global and he has emerged as a musician’s musician, possessing a range and aptitude that place him on that shortlist of special artist, vocalist and entertainer. Ola’s three-and-a-half octave baritone, the powerful emotions he conveys with it, and his elegant appearance connect with audiences around the world. Whether in person or on record, Onabulé gives his all, which includes a thoughtful interpretation of his experiences and the world around him.

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