Daniel Spirrett

Dan is a 21 year old saxophonist and composer based in Birmingham. Currently in his third year at Birmingham Conservatoire he is an active member of the the evolving jazz scene in and around the city. Born into a musical family in Wakefield, Dan took up piano but soon after took to the saxophone becoming interested in jazz and big band playing. He began playing with various big bands around Yorkshire including Wakefield Youth Jazz Orchestra and became part of DYJA (Doncaster Youth Jazz Association) under the direction of John Ellis MBE playing at many jazz festivals across the country. Dan began his development of jazz at Leeds College of Music under the guidance of Simon Kaylor and Rob Mitchell. In 2013 Dan gained a place on the prestigious BMus (Hons) Jazz course at Birmingham Conservatoire and began studying with Mike Williams, Andy Panayi and Jean Toussaint. Whilst studying Dan has been involved in projects with visiting artists such as George Colligan, Dave Holland, Nate Smith and Stan Sulzmann. In addition he has also been fortunate to have one to one tuition from New York saxophonist Jon Irabagon. 2015 saw Dan share an international platform as part of the Birmingham/Trondheim jazz exchange performing at Cheltenham International Jazz Festival debuting some of his new compositions. During September to December of 2015 Dan was lucky enough to gain a place on the Erasmus scheme and studied at the highly respected Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, Holland for a semester. Here he developed his playing and study of jazz networking with musicians across Europe.