Performance
Piano recitals and showcase concerts for families and schools; a set at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, the club where bebop was born; and the Royal Albert Hall stage in 2023 as Classic FM & ABRSM Visiting Music Teacher of the Year.
Music
Pianist, composer, multi-instrumentalist.
Classical training, jazz harmony and world instruments meet cinematic composition. On stage since childhood; on record since 2011.
The musician
Nimai is a classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist with a long grounding in jazz harmony and improvisation. He composes, arranges, performs and produces his own work, and has taught seven instruments to students from first lessons through to diploma level.
He has been on stage since childhood. At seven he appeared in Simon Callow's West End production of Carmen Jones at the Old Vic; in 2005 he was signed to the US label Compound Entertainment, part of Def Jam Records. His sound sits where East meets West: cinematic and orchestral writing, world instruments and percussion, atmospheric and spiritual textures, and the piano at the centre of it.
Since 2011 he has released music under his own name: a series of acoustic piano instrumentals, the album Memoirs of Time in 2020, and from 2025 a steady run of originals and symphonic arrangements leading to the album Marching To The Spotlight in 2026. Everything is on Spotify and Apple Music.
- Piano
- Violin
- Cello
- Flute
- Guitar
- Clarinet
- Drums
A musical life
Performer, recording artist, teacher
Musical theatre
A West End debut at seven in Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, alongside Patti Boulaye and Gary Wilmot, after training at the New Harlequin Theatre School and working in radio, television and media advertising.
Recording
Signed to Compound Entertainment (Def Jam Records) in 2005. Two albums and a run of singles released under his own name since 2011.
Collaboration
Playing with jazz singers and instrumentalists, writing and recording with other artists, most recently Light Upon The Winter Sky with the singer Amara Leighton, and orchestral and symphonic arrangements of existing works.
Developing young musicians
Over twenty-five years teaching, and an academy whose students progress through ABRSM, Rockschool and LAMDA examinations towards diploma level.
Listen
Released music
Albums and singles released under his own name, newest first. Streaming links go to the artist pages.
Watch and listen
On stage
Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem.
At the piano on the stage where bebop was worked out in the 1940s, accompanying a singer beneath the club’s mural. Minton’s is the oldest jazz club in New York, and the room asks the same thing of a pianist that it always has: listen first.
Musical theatre
A West End debut at seven.
Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, 1991: Simon Callow’s production, a cast that included Patti Boulaye and Gary Wilmot, and a seven-year-old chosen from more than a hundred children. Singing, speaking, a fight scene, and one line he has never forgotten: “It was Carmen.”
The years before it were spent at the New Harlequin Theatre School and in radio, television and media advertising. The discipline of a West End run, learned that early, is still the discipline he teaches.
In performance
Lessons, performances and studio days are shared as they happen on social media.
Developing young musicians
The other half of a musical life.
Since 2000 Nimai has taught seven instruments to students from their first notes to diploma level, in schools, homes and online, and since 2012 has directed London MADA. The award that took him to the Royal Albert Hall in 2023 was for that work. The principle underneath it is the same one that governs his own practice: learn how to learn, and the music follows.
Composition, performance and collaboration
Cinematic and world-fusion composition, written to picture.
Orchestral writing with East-meets-West instrumentation, atmospheric textures and a recognisable voice. Available for commissions, performances, collaborations and sync enquiries.