Leeds Conservatoire’s Programme Leader for Jazz, Jamil Sheriff, and LCoM alumna Nikki Iles have both been nominated for the Jazz Education Award in the 2019 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Jamil Sheriff has been a lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire since 2007, becoming Programme Leader in 2014. His teaching specialisms are Jazz Piano, Contemporary Jazz Composition and Jazz Musicianship. Jamil has recorded and collaborated with many artists and recorded four albums of his own music, each of which have received national and international accolades. As a performer he has toured extensively in both the UK and internationally.
Since graduating from Leeds College of Music, Nikki Iles has maintained a busy performance schedule whilst developing a career as a widely respected educator, including lecturing at the conservatoire, specialising in Jazz Piano. Nikki is also nominated in the category Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year.
Sons of Kemet, featuring Leeds Conservatoire Jazz alumnus Eddie Hick, are also nominated in the category Jazz Album of the Year, for Your Queen Is A Reptile.
On being shortlisted for the prestigious award, Jamil Sherrif said;
“It’s an honour to be nominated alongside Nikki and Pete, who are so fantastic. I feel that this nomination is really for the Leeds Conservatoire Jazz faculty, who are the most committed and caring music educators I know. They make a huge difference to the lives of the students they teach – many of whom would put their happy and successful careers down to the connections they have made with our tutors. It is such a privilege to work amongst this team – I come into work in the morning and take a look around and have to pinch myself.”
The awards were introduced in 2005 by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group (APPJAG). The group consists of 80 members from the House of Commons and House of Lords, across all political parties. Its aim is to encourage a wider and deeper enjoyment of jazz, to increase Parliamentarians’ understanding of the industry and issues surrounding it, as well as promoting jazz as a musical form, and to raise its profile both inside and outside of Parliament.
The nominees were selected in an online public vote, and then shortlisted by a selection panel who represent a broad cross-section of backgrounds united in their passion and knowledge of jazz.
The winners, chosen by judging members of APPJAG will be announced at the awards ceremony at PizzaExpress Live, Holborn, London on Tuesday 3 December 2019.
Find out more about studying BA (Hons) Music (Jazz) at Leeds Conservatoire
Shortlist for Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2019
