Pete Churchill has been working as a composer, pianist, singer and teacher for twenty years. Originally trained in Canada he has been based in England since 1985. He is a Professor of Jazz Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London but his freelance work takes him all over the world - both as a performer and an educator.
His career has included work as diverse as a year in the West End as a Musical Director of 'Five Guys named Moe', considerable song-writing success (gold and platinum albums), European Jazz Festivals as a vocalist, pianist and conductor and almost a decade and a half as the British accompanist for the legendary jazz-singer Mark Murphy. Pete is recognised as being at the forefront of European Jazz education and has been on the Faculty of most of the leading Conservatoires in this country. He is also very much in demand abroad and has taught regularly in Australia (Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) the Far East (Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore) and closer to home in Finland at the Sibelius Academy as well as short courses in Bulgaria, France and Italy. All this activity culminated in Pete receiving the 2007 Parliamentary Award for Services to Jazz Education.
In addition to being Mark Murphy's regular accompanist Pete is continually in demand as a conductor directing many choirs here and abroad as well as Kenny Wheeler's Big band from time to time. As a singer Pete is a member of both Kenny Wheeler's and Abdullah Ibrahim's Vocal projects. He has also released his own critically aclaimed album, 'The Bad and the Beautiful' - recorded with the legendary saxophonist, Bobby Wellins. It has been described as 'swinging, musicianly... and refreshingly under-produced' and an example of 'singer-pianism at its most intelligent'.