Simon Andrew Townley is a British pianist and composer. Townley was born in 1963 and read music at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

. He has been the pianist for the

Pasadena Roof Orchestra The Pasadena Roof Orchestra (PRO) is a contemporary band from England that specialises in the jazz and swing genres of music of the 1920s and 1930s, although their full repertoire is considerably wider. The orchestra has existed since 1969, a ...

since 1992 and the pianist and musical director for Beyond Broadway. He has written scores for television programs, musicals, and the operetta ''Too Little Toulouse''. He wrote the music for a children's stage show, ''Shaun's Big Show''. Townley has presented programs on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

and the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

. He "vividly recalled" violinist Tom Jenkins in one broadcast. Others explored page-turners for pianists and trains as an influence on composers.

References

1963 births Living people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford {{UK-jazz-musician-stub