Pianocircus

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pianocircus is a musical ensemble consisting of six pianists.

The original six-piano ensemble formed in 1989 to perform Steve Reich's Six Pianos. Founder members included Max Richter and Richard Harris. Since then they have created a repertoire of over one hundred works, the majority of which have been written specially for the ensemble. These include pieces by Kevin Volans, Graham Fitkin, Brian Eno, Louis Andriessen, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Terry Riley, Nikki Yeoh and Heiner Goebbels. pianocircus has released seven CDs with Decca and now has three CDs available on its own label.

The six pianists - as of 2007, David Appleton, Adam Caird, Kate Halsall, Semra Kurutaç, Helen Reid and Graham Rix - have a broad range of experience, from traditional western classical music to jazz, pop and rock, African and Asian traditional music, improvisation and composition. Between them the members of pianocircus work in collaboration with film and video makers, theatre and circus performers, dancers and choreographers, and in a variety of educational settings.

The group performs throughout the UK and internationally, with appearances at the South Bank Centre, London; Lincoln Center, New York; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Bath International Festival, the Big Chill Enchanted Garden Festival, the Hong Kong and Singapore Festivals, the Istanbul Festival, NYYD festival (Estonia), Musica Ficta Festival (Lithuania), the CREA and 38eme Rugissants Festivals (France), Settembre Musica (Italy) and in Canada (Banff residency), the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

pianocircus are currently Associate Artists at Brunel University, London, where they have been working with composer Colin Riley and, through him, drummer Bill Bruford.