Award winning jazz pianist and composer, Nikki Iles was a founder member of the innovative Creative Jazz Orchestra – working with Mike Gibbs, Vince Mendoza and Kenny Wheeler. She has had a busy freelance career working with Julian Arguelles, Claire Martin and Scott Hamilton amongst others and also recording with Kenny Wheeler, Stan Sulzmann, Norma Winstone, Dave Holland, Tina May and Rufus Reid. With over 30 CDs recorded over 3 decades of her career, she has been described as the “Heroine of British Jazz”.
Although well known as a pianist, composition remains a major part of her musical life with many commissions including the London Sinfonietta, the International Society of Jazz Composers and Arrangers, the Umo Jazz Orchestra Helsinki, and NYJO (featured at the Proms).
With a parallel career as a much loved and respected teacher, Nikki holds posts at Middlesex University, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as giving masterclasses around the world. She has been a driving force behind the Jazz syllabus at the ABRSM and continues to publish with Oxford University Press.
