Charles Condy – Pianist and Composer
Looking back, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Charles Condy became a professional musician – detours notwithstanding.
The foundations were laid at school where he focused on flute but also experimented with jazz piano and saxophone. After gaining a performer’s diploma in flute, Charles left school and went on to read Latin and Greek at Birmingham University. Then, in 1995, he moved to Berlin where he continued studying Latin and and pursued various part-time jobs. But it was an encounter with Richie Beirach at the Berlin A-Trane jazz club that finally convinced him to devote himself to a musical career.
So. between 1998 and 2001, Charles studied privately with German pianist and composer Tim Sund before returning to London to complete a postgraduate jazz diploma at the Guildhall School of Music. He was awarded a distinction and, shortly afterwards, took up his first engagement as Musical Director for the Birmingham Stage Company.
As 2002 winner of the Carleton Granbery Jazz Award and the Ted Heath Jazz Composition Prize, Charles showcased his compositions at the Vortex including his six-movement suite based on paintings by Lyonel Feininger. He has also played with jazz luminaries such as Rufus Reid, Kenny Wheeler and Tim Garland, who was featured in his debut Big Band composition Semele.
In 2003 Charles received a commission to write and conduct an anthem for a children’s festival in southern Germany, contributed the liner notes to Tim Sund's Americana CD and performed at the opening of the Museum of London’s exhibition: 1920s - The Decade that Changed London. In April 2004, while studying early 20th century jazz piano and stride with Keith Nichols, he was invited to join the leading British Chicago-Dixieland band, the Bright Stars of Jazz.
Festival appearances include the 2003 Greenwich Riverfront Jazz Festival, the 2004 London Jazz On The Streets midsummer festival, the Brecon Jazz Festival 2004 and 2005 and the Isle of Man Jazz Festival 2006.
Charles cites Earl Hines, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock and Richie Beirach among his American jazz influences while ECM jazz artists such as Egberto Gismonti and Ralph Towner, together with pianists John Taylor and Enrico Pieranunzi have shaped his writing. Remaining true to his classical training, Charles has looked for inspiration to the Bach keyboard works, Weill’s chamber music and the orchestral textures of Stravinsky, Hindemith and Takemitsu. The translation of visual stimuli into sound is a recurring theme throughout his compositions, an idea inspired chiefly by Debussy’s La Mer and Images and Beirach’s Water Lilies and Self Portraits. As well as recording, Charles performs regularly throughout the UK in solo and duo projects in addition to being a sidesman in styles ranging from contemporary to classic jazz.