Biography

Laurie is a pianist and composer working in the idiom of improvised music from the south-west coast of the UK, working extensively between the scenes of Europe and the UK. He co-leads the Berlin-based contemporary jazz collective 'biggerPicture' alongside Danish trumpeter Tobias Bech Lauesen, who released their debut album ‘Memories in Exile’ in June of 2026 on ZenneZ records.

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’. 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.

In the past year Laurie has become increasingly in-demand as a sideman, having performed at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, ATrane Berlin, and Zig Zag Berlin, Vortex Jazz Club and the Hammersmith Apollo under the likes of parliamentary jazz prize winner Donovan Haffner, Klara Devlin and Ananda Brandão and Ursula Harrison and Sylvie Noble.

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 (being awarded the Presidential Scholarship after his audition in New York) 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 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, and has since studied with the likes of Nikki Illes, Kit Downes, Gwillym Simcock, Micah Thomas and Lex Korten. Laurie was featured as a finalist in the audition stage of Jazz Campus Mainz’s International Gutenberg Jazz Collective 2025/2026 in September 2025.