Poppy Ackroyd
Colour photograph of Ackroyd performing in a theatre. She is seated, playing the piano, with a projection behind the piano
Ackroyd performing at Purcell Room in London, 2018
Background information
BornBermondsey, London, England
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • composer
Instrument(s)
  • Piano
  • violin
Labels

Poppy Ackroyd is a British composer, pianist and violinist and a regular member of the live project Hidden Orchestra. She is known for her "non-conformist approach to producing sounds"[1] and while her debut album consisted of violin and piano played by Ackroyd, her most recent album, Resolve, incorporated improvisation from Manu Delago, Jo Quail and Mike Lesirge.[2][3]

Biography

Ackroyd grew up in Bermondsey in London and her father is visual artist Norman Ackroyd. When only seven, she decided that her future career would be as a pianist. Ackroyd was classically trained on violin and piano from an early age. She studied piano and composition at the University of Edinburgh and holds a master's degree in piano performance. She makes music by manipulating and multi-tracking sounds from just these two instruments.

Her debut album ‘Escapement’ was released in December 2012 and a DVD – ‘Escapement Visualised’ – featuring bespoke visuals by Lumen for each track on the album, was released in September 2014.‘Feathers’, her second album, followed in November 2014, and builds on the concept behind her debut, with most of the sounds again coming from the violin and the piano; however, this time the tracks also feature other keyboard and string instruments. In 2017 she signed to Bjork's label One Little Independent Records and released a mini album ‘Sketches’ in August. ‘Sketches’ is an acoustic solo piano album comprising 10 tracks. Six of these are reworkings of tracks from ‘Escapement’ and ‘Feathers’, the other four are arrangements of new tracks from latest full album ‘Resolve’. 'Resolve' features guest instrumentalists for the first time – Manu Delago on hang, Mike Lesirge on flute and clarinets and Jo Quail on cello.

Ackroyd is a member of Joe Acheson's live project Hidden Orchestra (Tru Thoughts Recordings) and has worked on numerous projects with other musicians, artists, filmmakers, animators, dancers and actors.

She acknowledges support from PRS for Music Foundation.

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "Poppy Ackroyd - Resolve - Album review - Loud And Quiet". Loud And Quiet. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "Interview: Poppy Ackroyd - M Magazine". M magazine: PRS for Music online magazine. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  3. ↑ "Poppy Ackroyd – "The Calm Before"". Stereogum. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
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