Zoe Rahman
"Zoe shines as one of Britain’s most powerful compositional voices and important contemporary artists.” Ivors Academy.

It is with the greatest pleasure that we welcome the extraordinarily talented Zoe Rahman back to Hebden Bridge to perform at the Wainsgate Piano Weekend. She was a firm favourite at the 2015 Hebden Bridge Piano Festival and had it not been for the pandemic, would have returned to appear at the Festival in 2021.

“Her sound is drenched with originality and jazz legitimacy….a world class artist, composer and performer… Zoe shines as one of Britain’s most powerful compositional voices and important contemporary artists.” Ivors Academy.

“Her playing is strident and strong, with heaps of dynamic and harmonic variety. There was plenty of tasty swing bluesy phrasing in there, but also lots of ethnic piquancy that really adds to sound palette. She really worked the timbral and textural potential of the piano into her playing too, making for an engaging solo set that many couldn’t match without accompaniment” London Jazz Festival review.

Described in The Observer as “a remarkable pianist by any standard”, Zoe Rahman has firmly established herself as one of the brightest stars on the contemporary jazz scene. A vibrant and highly individual pianist/composer, her style is deeply rooted in jazz yet it reflects her classical background, British/Bengali heritage and her very broad musical taste. Known for her powerful technique, wide-ranging imagination and exuberant performance, she has become a highly sought-after musician on the international jazz scene.

In July 2023 Zoe released her new album Colour of Sound, “the most ambitious, many-hued, uplifting large-ensemble music of her multi-award winning career”.

In 2021 Zoe won the Ivor Novello Impact Award at the Ivors Composer Awards, she won a MOBO Award (best Jazz Act 2012) for her album Kindred Spirits, “a work of breathtaking musical imagination” (Metro) and her second album, Melting Pot, was nominated in 2006 for one of the UK’s most prestigious music awards, the Nationwide Mercury Prize, alongside the likes of Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Arctic Monkeys and Muse. The album also won ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the UK’s inaugural Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Zoe has been invited to play at many international jazz festivals and has worked extensively throughout the UK and internationally, including performances in USA, Japan, Germany (NDR), Australia, North Sea Jazz, Kuwait, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Barbados, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Algeria, Estonia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.

Aside from her own projects, Zoe has performed and recorded with many other artists including Courtney Pine, George Mraz, Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra, Danny Thompson, Clark Tracey, Soothsayers, Penguin Cafe Orchestra,  Sahana Bajpaie, Issie Barratt’s Interchange, Larry Stabbins, Arnob, Kuljit Bhamra, Reem Kelani, Roland Gift (FYC), Natacha Atlas, Nikki Yeoh, Yoko Ono and Martha Wainwright.

Ticket holders for this concert can also come to the pre-concert Jazz Café event in the Sunday School room featuring pianist, and the artistic director of the Piano Weekend, Dave Nelson and his long-time Tongue & Groove colleague Peadar Long on various saxophones, flutes, clarinets, whistles and occasional bagpipes! (The tickets are free, but only available to Zoe Rahman ticket holders.)