About Me
Clarinettist Kate Luxmoore, trained at The Royal Northern College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She has performed at Festivals and venues worldwide with pianist Ian Buckle and artists such as Fairport Convention,
Jackie McShee, Lucky Ranku, Lekan Babalola, storytellers Vayu Naidu and Pyn Stockman and worked with theatre companies The Shysters, Open Theatre, Talking Birds, Ex Nihilo, Tangle and Salamander Tandem Dance Company, as well as recordings for BBC Radio 3 and 4 with composer John Nicholls.
She has a passion for community and participatory work and has led educational projects for many UK Orchestras, Theatres and Dance Companies, and taught courses at Birmingham Conservatoire and The Royal College of Music in music workshop skills. She has also undertaken research trips to Cuba, Ghana and Nigeria.
Kate composes for her own ensemble The Kate Luxmoore Grup, debuting her first album ‘The Grove” at The Royal Festival Hall, London and releasing an EP ‘As I Walked’ in 2018, featuring Herlin Riley recorded in New Orleans and her latest album ‘Unquiet Grave’ in 2019, which features the late Tony Allen on drums. She is now working on her next album rooted in English folk songs and is planning a UK tour for 2024.
Kate currently musically directs, composes and arranges for percussionist Lekan Babalola’s Sacred Funk 4tet and Yoruba Sonnets projects.
Kate Luxmoore, “an accomplished clarinettist, with a velveteen tone and lithe style of playing”
“A free spirited, jazz infused, collaboration between Lekan Babalola the percussionist and cultural activist and classically trained clarinettist Kate Luxmoore.
“KLLB create a sweet juxtaposition of jazz, soul and rhythm.”
“Tales of Diaspora” underlines the talents of clarinet supremo and MD Kate Luxmoore alongside Percussionist Lekan Babalola, who shines throughout and brings out the recurring theme of a musical journey across the continents.”
“an inspiring afro-jazz album”
Blues and Soul
Kate went on to create her own ensemble “The Kate Luxmoore Group” for which she has written and recorded her own album “The Grove”. Produced in 2008, it launched at the Purcell Room, London in 2010.
“ a player with a big English sound”
Telegraph
“The title track presents the bass clarinet in tuneful, joyful mood a showcase for kate luxmoore’s lovely warm tone. This music has an immediate appeal, the unusual line-up produces a distinctive sound spanning continents and genres, catch them live if you get the opportunity otherwise the cd is the next best thing”
Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine.
Whilst living in Somerset and returning to her Dorset roots, she began to explore the collections of Somerset Songs notated in the 1900’s by Cecil Sharpe, which led to her latest performance which she hopes to record in 2019.
Kate enjoys working across the Arts and has devised live music for a number of plays incluing “The Rift” by Natalie McGrath at The Brewhouse Theatre.
“There was superbly evocative music from musicians Lekan Babalola and Kate Luxmoore who were present on stage throughout, creating a fabulous soundscape and an atmosphere which was both haunting and entertaining in its own right.”
MUSIC EDUCATION
Kate regularly organises workshops
Kate regularly organises workshops encouraging and empowering the next generation of musicians. Her passion for educational work is ongoing. She began by leading projects for organisations such as The Halle Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, BCMG, Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Festival Hall, as well as tutoring at Birmingham Conservatoire in workshop and improvisation skills and later as a Professor at The Royal College of Music.
Kate regularly organises workshops encouraging and empowering the next generation of musicians to create, improvise, compose and perform and she also now produces The Birchfield Jazz Festival, providing opportunities for young and local performers to perform jazz in it’s broadest sense.