Cassie Kinoshi is a British composer, saxophonist and bandleader who leads the group SEED Ensemble, who were nominated for a

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

award in 2019.

Biography

Kinoshi grew up in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second Garden city movement, garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first New towns in the United Kingdom, new towns (designated 1948). It is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England, and attended

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

(Composition) as well as

Tomorrow's Warriors Tomorrow's Warriors (TW) is a jazz music education and artist development organisation that was co-founded in 1991 by Janine Irons and Gary Crosby, committed to championing diversity, inclusion and equality across the arts through jazz, with ...

. Cassie attended St. George's School, Harpenden for sixth form where she completed her A level in music. Kinoshi formed SEED Ensemble in 2016 as a way of celebrating Britain's diversity, and the group has been praised for its conscious look at British society and culture. SEED Ensemble combine jazz with West African and Caribbean music, and Kinoshi told Vinyl Factory: "It's important to me that I shine a light on political subject matter which is often disregarded by the masses and highlight what it means to exist as a young Black British citizen today." Kinoshi was also a member of the Afrobeat group Kokoroko, and the seven-piece (inactive since 2020) jazz group Nérija. Her six-piece Brown Penny played at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, in early 2022 and was due to take part in the EFG London Jazz Festival in November 2022. She left Kokoroko in 2022 to focus on her work with SEED Ensemble. In 2019, SEED Ensemble were nominated for a

award for their album ''Driftglass''. Kinoshi told DIY that she "screamed really high pitch and ran around in circles" when she heard about the nomination. The album received an 85% jump in sales as a result of the nomination. Kinoshi is also a composer who writes for theatre, including the National Theatre (''

Top Girls ''Top Girls'' is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It centres on Marlene, a career-driven woman who is heavily invested in women's success in business. The play examines the roles available to women in old society, and what it means or takes for a ...

''), the

Old Vic Theatre The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

and the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinoshi, Cassie Alumni of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance British jazz alto saxophonists British jazz saxophonists British musical theatre composers British jazz composers British women jazz musicians British women composers Living people Tomorrow's Warriors alumni British women jazz saxophonists Year of birth missing (living people)