A Life Lived
at the Piano.

Rupert Sheen's first musical ambition was to be a church organist — a dream put on hold once he'd had his first piano lesson at the age of six. Desperate to attend Ashton-on-Mersey School because it had a great school band, he was taught trumpet, clarinet and piano by professional musician Ernie Waites.

The school band went on to perform for Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Longford Park, Manchester during her Silver Jubilee in 1977, and won a BBC TV competition called Settle the Score. A year later, Rupert was a finalist in an annual carol competition run by the popular BBC TV magazine programme Nationwide with his self-penned song Welcome to the World.

After leaving school, he took up music professionally when he joined Orlando, a jazz-rock group based in Sale, Cheshire, who wrote their own material. The group started writing pop songs and were finalists on BBC Rising Stars in 1980. They also performed as support for, amongst others, Bucks Fizz, Modern Romance, Imagination, The Supremes and Matt Monroe.

Out of this group came National Pastime, who secured a recording contract in London, supported Kajagoogoo on a UK tour, and went to Japan to promote their one and only album Built to Break.

In 1986, the band split up and Rupert went solo as a pianist-singer, spending the next ten-plus years playing at venues throughout the North West — including The Midland Hotel, Manchester — and London, which culminated in a residency in the beautiful dining room of The Ritz Hotel, London.

Guests during his Ritz residency included Queen Elizabeth, former Prince Charles, Princes William and Harry, composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber, and former Prime Minister John Major.

Based on jazz and swing, his music encompasses everything from classical to rock 'n' roll. He specialises in finding out what people like and then giving them their own personalised rendition — a rare and treasured quality in any performer.