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T H E * * C A B A R E T * * S H O W
“Harry's musicianship is mind-blowing and his personality superb - an instant hit with the audience and the backstage team. Artists like this are a dream to work with and always a sure fire winner for a promoter.... not to mention the actual brilliant piano playing!”
JO METCALF - FESTIVAL DIRECTOR, SALISBURY INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
"You are amazing, I am speechless!"
WASFI KANI - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, GRANGE PARK OPERA
Harry's unique cabaret show has been featured many times on BBC radios 2, 3 and 4 (and now BBC6 DAB radio!) and seen by approaching three quarters of a million people in all 6 continents. It provides a perfect evening for any festival, music-society or private cabaret audience right across the spectrum - concert pianists, professional musicians and the most sophisticated crowds are wowed by his amazing ability to improvise in the classical, jazz and any other style ("You practise all your life and think you can play the piano - then you hear Harry" said renowned concert pianist Martin Roscoe) and first time or reluctant concert-goers remark that they never believed they could have enjoyed a 'classical' evening so much!
Stewart Collins, artistic director of the Henley and Chelsea festivals and the Holders season Barbados said "Some artists are not immediately pigeon hole-able so when you come to hear them you are not quite sure what to expect. But the joy then on witnessing something extraordinary is so much greater for that uncertainty. Harry came to me highly recommended, but still something of an unknown quantity. My response on hearing him – and more importantly the response of the audience – was immediate. What an incredible musical brain, what an incredible musical wit, and what a truly incredible pianistic technique. I’m not normally one to gush, far from it, but Harry really has been my discovery of the year." Although classically based this is in many ways the ultimate ‘crossover’ show - aiming to prove that beautiful music can be inspired from almost anywhere. The tone is set by Harry’s initial opening medley, one minute Chopin the next Jerry Lee Lewis (that gap is not as insurmountable as it seems as long as one uses the stepping stones of Rossini, Bernstein, Kern, Widor and Warner Bros!)
 The evening unfolds into a loose life-story of a classically trained musician who took a wrong turn somewhere and decided he rather liked it. As a student he tried mixing Cole Porter with Beethoven for comic effect, he went on to give the glorious theme tune to ‘Neighbours’ the Rachmaninov treatment... This material quickly led to his own show on BBC Radio 2 and more recently live improvisation concerts on Radio 3 ("How does he do it?" asked an astonished Brian Kay). As his career progressed Harry worked at media joints giving rise to spectacular film medleys, at mobile phone companies turning the ubiquitous ring-tones into a piece of opera and at an advertising company where he welded two of the most irritating jingles of all time into an original classical sonata movement in the style of Mozart.
Finally Harry worked as a composer, arranger and bandleader for several TV shows and he also draws on the music from his own head after quoting everybody else! To close the show Harry acknowledges that as well as being inspired by the genius of acts like Victor Borge and Dudley Moore (plus all the composers he has plagarised during the course of the evening) many of his ideas have stemmed from audience suggestions - he has been asked to play ‘The Archers’ in the style of Tchaikovsky, ‘Match of the day’ as a Strauss Waltz and the Simpsons theme in reggae style for example!
Proving that these things do not always have to be worked out in advance Harry takes half a dozen suggestions from the audience and creates an instant seamless medley in front of their very eyes and ears!
The ability to draw on music of any style has proved a useful passport for Harry, he has told this story from Argentina to Hong Kong and from Auckland to New York as well as all over Europe. The show is never the same twice, so whatever you hear will be unique to your audience.
If you are wondering how Harry's cabaret show would be received by an audience more used to a straight classical programme, perhaps we can leave the last word to Jill Elsworthy, hon secretary of the erudite Horsham Music Circle (president André Previn) which has been supporting the UK'S finest chamber acts for over 65 years. "Discovering the remarkably talented Harry in the early 90's was a revelation to our traditional chamber music audience and added a new dimension to the concert series. An instant success on his first visit when his impressive improvisational skills enthralled the full house he has returned on several occasions to delight us with his astonishing technical ability and profound musicianship"
If you are interested in booking Harry for any event please visit the contact page and email our friendly team!
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