Pete Billington
Conductor
Pete Billington began his musical education studying the piano and viola, later teaching himself to play guitar and double bass. He studied piano at City university where he gave the British premiere of Maurice Ohana's piano concerto before going on to a jazz postgrad at the Royal Academy of Music.
Whilst at college he began playing with Jazz drummer, Clark Tracey’s New Quintet alongside Simon Allen, Zoe Rahman and Mark Armstrong, going on to record two albums with the group and perform together for many years.
Since then, he has had the privilege to perform with many of the UK’s top artists, including: Sophie Alloway, Alan Barnes, Mike Bradley, Sam Burgess, Pete Cater, Andy Cleyndert, Sebastian De Krom, Ray Gelato, Kai Hoffman, Salena Jones, Tina May, Jim Mullen, Nigel Price, Martin Shaw, Simon Spillet, Art Themen, Steve Waterman, Don Weller, Bobby Wellins, Vasilis Xenopoulos, and is a regular on the London jazz scene, performing at Ronnie Scotts, the 606 Club and Pizza Express Live.
Pete has worked on several West End and touring productions including Thriller Live, The Bodyguard, Bat Out of Hell and Take That's musical 'The Band.' He has also toured with numerous of the professionals from Strictly Come Dancing, including: Brendan Cole, Vincent Simeone and Flavia Cacace, Aliaz Skorjanec and Jeanette Manrara.
Pete also enjoys a diverse recording and performing career with a wide range of artists. In recent years he has toured the US, Asia and Europe with veteran rock vocalist Colin Blunstone, produced a chart topping country album for singer-songwriter Mim Grey and backed a wide range of artists including: ABC, Peter Andre, Rick Astley, Michael Ball, Boney M, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Alison Moyet, Rumer, The Real Thing, and Paul Young.
As well as writing and recording as a jazz artist in his own right, Pete has collaborated on many original projects including two recent albums with award winning composer Simon Lasky and recordings featuring his own arrangements for vocalists Fleur Stevenson and Sony songwriter Miranda Wilford. His most recent album with Fleur, ‘For All We Know’ was featured in Jazz View’s ‘Best Albums of the Year’ and Jazz Fuel’s ‘Best Jazz Releases of 2022.’
