Laurie is a London-based pianist and composer working in the idiom of improvised music from the south-west coast of the UK. He co-leads the Berlin-based contemporary jazz collective 'biggerPicture' alongside Danish trumpeter Tobias Bech Lauesen.

“Memories in Exile” blends sounds that straddle the avant-garde and indie jazz, creating a space of radiant relevance. The well-crafted tracks build a delicate chromatic palette. Among the best works currently in circulation, it represents the new wave of European jazz, heralding a much-needed transformation. biggerPicture is a Berlin-based collective.”

- Giuseppe Maggioli, Windout, Italy, July 2026

Laurie also features in projects such as BBC Young Jazz Musician 2024, Ursula Harrison’s ‘Orbit Street’, as well as the Liva Strazdina Sextet and Andrey Smirnov’s Turkish Story. Laurie also leads his own nonet project featuring a string quartet named ‘Between the Sky and Earth exists…’ and a new quintet project titled ‘Five of a Kind’.

Laurie performs frequently between the jazz scenes of London and Berlin, having performed at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, A Trane Berlin, Vortex Jazz Club and Zig Zag Berlin. He has band-led projects performing at the Vortex, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and Brecon Jazz Festival and has performed as a sideman under Donovan Haffner, Sylvie Noble, Ursula Harrison, Klara Devlin, Ananda Brandão, George Johnson and Elliot Wong.

"Rich’s playing was fabulous: spacious where it needed to be, understated where others may have been tempted to over-complicate, commanding throughout. He took the first solo in the opening song, ‘Multitudes’, stamped his own rhythmatic authority on it, and had the whole room bouncing."

• - Angus Batey - Four Corners, Klara Devlin Quartet, The Vortex, April 2026

As an arranger, he has had his work performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and as a composer and bandleader, he has had his music played at Copenhagen, Aarhus and Brecon Jazz Festivals. Beginning his studies at London's Royal Academy of Music in September 2025 with support and funding from Help Musicians, Laurie also received offers and scholarships from the Manhattan School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Growing up in a household with a father as a record collector, Laurie was exposed to an eclectic mix of music from a young age. Some of this music, such as that by artists like Nick Drake, Ravi Shankar, and John Coltrane, has remained among his key artistic influences. Other major influences include music discovered during his studies of classical music, including that of Lili Boulanger, J.S. Bach, and Oliver Messiaen, as well as music encountered on his ongoing journey with improvised music forms, such as Immanuel Wilkins, Kit Downes, and Micah Thomas, to name a few. One of Laurie's key artistic aims is to create and play music in which musicians from all of these sonic worlds feel at home.

He recently graduated with First Class Honours from Cardiff University's School of Music under the tutelage of Welsh pianist Huw Warren. Laurie was featured as a finalist in the audition stage of Jazz Campus Mainz’s Gutenberg Jazz Collective 2025/2026 in September 2025.