Piano Circus formed in 1989 to play Steve Reich's Six Pianos, and has since created a repertoire of over one hundred works for six pianos and/or keyboards ; the majority are written specially for the ensemble and include pieces by Kevin Volans, Graham Fitkin, Brian Eno, Louis Andriessen, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Terry Riley, Nikki Yeoh and Heiner Goebbels. Piano Circus has released seven CDs with Decca and now has three CDs available on its own label.
The six pianists have a broad range of experience, from traditional western classical music to jazz, pop and rock, African and Asian traditional music, improvisation and composition. Between them the members of Piano Circus work in collaboration with film and video makers, theatre and circus performers, dancers and choreographers, and in a variety of educational settings.
The group performs throughout the UK and internationally, with appearances at the South Bank Centre, London; Lincoln Center, New York; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Bath International Festival, the Big Chill Enchanted Garden Festival, the Hong Kong and Singapore Festivals, the Istanbul Festival, NYYD festival (Estonia), Musica Ficta Festival (Lithuania), the CREA and 38eme Rugissants Festivals (France), Settembre Musica (Italy) and in Canada (Banff residency), the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
