Nikki Iles


[Image:Nikki-Iles_DSC05295.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Aarhus (Denmark 2022)
Photo Hreinn Gudlaugsson]
Nikki Anne Iles is a British jazz composer, pianist and educator.
WWW Official Site

Early life

Iles was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, on 16 May 1963. She started her musical education at primary school, where she learnt to play the harmonica and the clarinet, and at eleven years old she won a junior exhibition at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied clarinet and piano from 1974 to 1981. She became a member of the Bedfordshire Youth Jazz Orchestra. She went on to the Leeds College of Music.

Later life and career

After graduating from the Leeds College of Music, she decided to settle in Yorkshire. After marrying trumpeter Richard Iles, she changed her surname from Burnham. She joined his band Emanon, with which she played some of her compositions. Iles also began playing with several London-based bands, such as those led by Steve Argüelles, Mick Hutton and Stan Sulzmann.
Iles won the 1996 John Dankworth Special Award at the BT Jazz Festival. Following a serious car crash after a gig, Iles opted to settle in London.
Iles was a senior lecturer at Middlesex University, and has taught at the University of York, Leeds College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music, and in Bulgaria, Holland, France, and Finland. In 2021 Iles was awarded the Ivor Novello Jazz Composition Award for her work 'The Caged Bird'.
Iles was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to music.
In 2025 Iles was announced as the new principal conductor of Hamburg's NDR Bigband.

Discography

As sidewoman

With Anthony Braxton
With Mike Gibbs
  • By the Way
With Ingrid Laubrock
  • Some Times
With Tina May
With Sylvan Richardson
  • Pyrotechnics
With Geoff Simkins
  • Don't Ask
With Martin Speake
  • Secret
With Stan Sulzmann
With Dick Walter/Jazz Craft Ensemble
  • ''Secret Moves''