Bio:
Cassie Kinoshi (b. 1993) is a Mercury Award nominated and Ivors Academy Award winning (formerly know as BASCA, British Composer Award) London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist. She is currently working in theatre, film, contemporary dance and both the jazz and classical performance worlds.
Cassie is best known for her work with her large ensemble SEED alongside bands KOKOROKO and NÉRIJA. She was Mercury Musical Developments’ and Musical Theatre Network’s Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer Scheme recipient at Dundee Rep Theatre from 2018-19 and was a part of the London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Scheme 2018-19.
Contact Information
Management/Booking:
Management: Steve Abbott (steve.abbott@harmonicartists.com)
Bookings (SEED Ensemble): Sinan Ors (sinan@atc-live.com)
Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Theatre composition credits: Top Girls (National Theatre), The Little Prince adpated by Inua Ellams (Stratford Circus Arts Centre), All The Shit I Can’t Say To My Dad (This Is Black, Bunker Theatre), Teleportation (This is Black, Bunker Theatre), Blue Beneath My Skin (This Is Black, Bunker Theatre), SuperBlackMan (Battersea Arts Centre), Pagans (Old Vic Theatre, Old Vic 12), Exceptional Mercy (Old Vic Theatre, Old Vic 12), Hy Brasil (Old Vic Theatre, Old Vic 12) Feather by Feather (Old Vic Workrooms), Bobsleigh Team (Old Vic Workrooms)
Film & Advertising credits: "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead”: Tour of the Old Vic (Old Vic Theatre/National Theatre)Undercurrent (London Short Film Festival Best Experimental Film Nominee 2018) ONES, On An Empty Stomach (ICA Best Experimental Short Film Award Nominee 2017)
Awards and Nominations: Mercury Award Nominee 2019 (Driftglass, SEED Ensemble), Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Nominee 2020 (SEED Ensemble), Jazz FM Album of the Year Nominee 2020 (Driftglass, SEED Ensemble), Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Winner 2019, Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM Jazz Album of the Year Nominee 2019 (Driftglass, SEED Ensemble), Ivors Academy Award Winner 2018 (formerly known as British Composer Award, BASCA), Best Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble (Afronaut, SEED Ensemble), Parliamentary Jazz Award 2017 for Best Newcomer (Nérija), Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Nominee 2016 (Nérija), BBC Young Composer of the Year Nominee 2012
Outside of theatre, Cassie has worked as a curator for the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room alongside Moses Boyd (Unstoppable Voices, 2018) as well as writing and arranging music for events such as Women of the World Festival 2017 (Royal Festival Hall). She also featured as a part of Soweto Kinch's BBC Four show Jazzology and is regularly invited as a radio and live panel guest to discuss politics, society and music. Cassie also works as an educator and workshop leader, her most recent work being at the EFG London Jazz Festival 2019 for Serious' Womxn Make Music performance at the Southbank Centre.
Formed in early 2016, SEED Ensemble is a Mercury Award nominated ten-piece band led by alto saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi.
SEED Ensemble:
Combining jazz with inner-city London, West African and Caribbean influenced groove, SEED Ensemble explores a blend of genres through original compositions and improvisation. Their debut release Driftglass (Jazz Re:freshed, 2019) features the track Afronaut (feat. XANA) which won the Ivors Academy Award 2018 (formerly known as BASCA, British Composer Award) for Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble.
“…a wonderful reflection not simply of the best of London’s current improvisational music, but a strong perspective representing the city’s young Black creative class.”
- Afropunk
“Cassie Kinoshi is a striking instrumentalist, a musician able to reinterpret material on the fly, while injecting brave new elements in the process…a stunning work, full of daring musicality and spiritual depth.”
- The Clash
" A most fantastic and colourful approach to this piece. So very well done and I'm extremely proud of you all. Big thanks."
- Greg Osby
“…Driftglass is an untrammelled wrap-around delight.”
- All About Jazz
"The richness of the band’s melody, harmony and solo is something we can attest to and that got the crowd going. Band members cut across race and gender; and original compositions are inspired by the social issues of our times. So a night of music by the people for the people about the people? We like. "
- www.sqwzl.com