Simon Purcell
Simon Purcell, jazz musician and educator, best known as Head of Jazz at Trinity College of Music and member of the Pop and Jazz Steering Group for the Association of European Conservatoires. Still active as a performer, he has appeared with Red Rodney, Kenny Wheeler, Eddie Henderson, Stan Sulzman, Jean Toussaint and Julian Arguelles. His current quintet features Julian Siegel, Chris Batchelor and Gene Calderazzo.
Simon Purcell is involved in educational research, including Staff Development through Creative Co-Mentoring Partnerships (2001), Musical Patchwork: Teacher Research Within a Conservatoire (2003) and Teacher Research Within a Conservatoire (2005), presenting at conferences in the UK and abroad.
Founder of Jazz Umbrella in 1993, a London-based collective, promoting gigs at the Vortex Jazz Club and establishing a network of gigs in local communities.
Simon Purcell received the All Party Parliamentry Jazz Appreciation Group award for Jazz Educator of the Year in 2006.
Joined the NYJO Executive in September 2009, mainly to advise on behalf of the Music Higher Education Sector to establish the NYJO Musical Policy Committee.
