Biography of Kaz Simmons

Raised in Hove, East Sussex, Kaz made her stage debut singing at the age of four at the Brighton Dome. She gained Grades 1-8 on both classical guitar and singing, and won awards at local festivals.
In 2000, Kaz graduated from Goldsmiths College, London with a BMus. Whilst singing in the Goldsmiths College Big Band, she found her love for jazz and began studying with Laura Zakian. Immediately after graduating, she flew to Crete for a residency in the harbour town of Chania, with a jazz quintet featuring Lyn Dobson (Manfred Mann, Soft Machine, Nick Drake) and Stuart Ritchie.

In September 2002 Kaz began a Post Graduate Diploma in Jazz Performance at Trinity College of Music under the tutorage of Dominic Ashworth, Anton Browne, Trudy Kerr, Anita Wardell and Nick Weldon. She left Trinity with a Distinction.

She has performed at venues around the country including The Vortex, Pizza on the Park, Spice of Life, National Theatre, De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill-on-Sea), The British Library, Blackheath Halls, Zefirellis (Cumbria), Colchester Arts Centre, Joogleberry Playhouse (Brighton), The National Portrait Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum.

She has also recorded two DVDs for BBC Television and regularly records children’s educational publications for A&C Black Publishers (Bloomsbury).