Story
Jeremy was born in Egypt in 1972, and spent most of the next ten years in Beirut, Lebanon. Around the age of eight, he started piano and recorder lessons and, after a year in Cyprus, he began to learn the flute at school in Bristol, England. After completing his Bachelor of Music degree at Sheffield University and then a postgraduate teaching certificate in Manchester, Jeremy auditioned to study at Berklee College of Music. He was offered a small scholarship to study there but decided, instead, to move back to Lebanon to teach music at the American Community School and he soon got involved in Beirut’s small but vibrant jazz scene as a flute and saxophone player.
After three years, he returned to Birmingham, England to do a Masters in Musicology and, of course, to continue playing music. Lebanon’s pull on him was strong enough, however, that after five years back in the UK, he returned again to Beirut to teach and play music and he finally (?) left in 2014 and moved to Prague where he now teaches music at the International School of Prague.
In 2016, Jeremy was invited to give a Ted X Talk at ISP and he spoke about how traditional musical instrument teaching methods can actually stifle students’ innate creativity. In the talk, he shows that musical improvisation is as natural as thinking and talking and he claims that, given the right learning environment, the ability to play by ear and to improvise can develop quite naturally.
That same year, he teamed up with the Czech jazz guitarist, Libor Šmoldas, to record his first album, entitled, ‘Off the Page’ along with bassist Tomáš Baroš and drummer, Václav Pálka.
You can see Jeremy playing live in Prague on a fairly regular basis (see below for info about upcoming gigs) and here are some photos of the story so far.
