Brilliant playing…tuneful and intricate - Big Issue
Biography
Dr. Bruno Heinen is a London based contemporary improvising pianist, composer and educator.
He is professor of piano and composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music.
Bruno has released 11 albums under his own name to date:
Rain Shadows / Portrait / Out of Doors / Boxed Invert Presume / Il Cielo Sopra Berlino / Mr. Vertigo / Common Spaces / Changing of the Seasons / Postcard to Bill Evans / Tierkries / Twinkle Twinkle
Coming from three generations of classical musicians, Bruno started playing piano at the age of four. He started composing pieces early on, and was introduced to the world of jazz through the music of Bill Evans by his uncle (jazz pianist Johannes Heinen) in his late teens. His compositional voice has been informed by his love of composers from Duke Ellington to Béla Bártok and from Wayne Shorter to György Ligeti.
Bruno has worked with artists such as Shabaka Hutchings, Eska, Julian Siegel, Jean Toussaint, Julian Arguelles, Denys Baptiste, Reem Kelani, Rachael Cohen, Larry Bartley, Tony Kofi, and Heidi Vogel amongst others.
Bruno has performed in venues and festivals including the South Bank Centre, The Barbican, Kings Place, the Vortex Jazz Club, the Shanghai World Music Festival, the London Jazz Festival, the Cork Jazz Festival and the Rest Is Noise Festival. He has had his music played on BBC radio 3, Jazz LineUp, Late Junction, BBC6 Music, BBC Scotland, in Italy, Germany, Austria, Canada, and the USA, as well as giving live broadcasts and interviews for the BBC and Rai 3 Italy.
In 2019 he was awarded an AHRC-funded practice-based PhD at the RNCM with the title 'Counterpoint in jazz piano with specific relation to the solo work of Fred Hersch'.
As part of his research, he received funding to travel to NYC to interview and work with Hersch in 2016.
As a composer, Bruno has written for groups ranging from two piano’s and percussion (for a project with Pete Saberton), to classical string ensemble (for a commission in 2017 from the Camerata Alma Viva). In 2009, Bruno was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Composers Award.
He recently held the piano chair for two performances of Bernstein's Wonderful Town at the Barbican Centre with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. The performances were recorded and released on ‘LSO Live’.
Bruno has a longstanding musical partnership with the outstanding Palestinian singer, composer and broadcaster Reem Kelani. Together they have played internationally in concert halls, festivals and live broadcasts.
Bruno Heinen plays with notable clarity and poise - Observer