"Piano classique ou piano jazz?" a question that I’m sometimes asked, as though the two are mutually exclusive. I don’t really see the distinction as I’ve always played improvised music as well as scores. Having grown up with the idea that an instrument is a creative as well as an interpretative medium, I play my own music alongside other repertoire. As a student of Paul Crossley, a renowned interpreter of Messiaen and Michael Tippett, and then with Tamas Ungar at UC San Diego, my interest in an alternative history of music of the past 100 years grew through playing works by Ives, Copland, Nancarrow, Moondog, Satie, Carla Bley, Duke Ellington, Cage, Feldman and all kinds of experimental and repetitive music. While working on my PhD thesis I took lessons in New York with radical ambidextrous free jazz pianist Borah BergmanAs a working pianist I’ve had to adapt to many different situations: the concert stage, the orchestra pit of the theatre, informal house concerts, répétiteur for dance companies and musicals, accompanist for singers, music for functions and weddings. I’ve been involved in numerous fusion projects with Indian and Pakistani musicians in the UK, Mumbai and Bangalore..