JOHN BROGDEN

BIOGRAPHY

JOHN BROGDEN began his music career at a young age, receiving daily tuition from his mother, a professional singer and music teacher. He also enjoyed regular ‘jam’ sessions with his dad on the sax. He began performing on stage in his parents' band from the age of eight, playing piano, organ and synths. He performed music from the charts through to classical, latin and jazz. This provided a diverse knowledge and appreciation of music and developed the essential skill of improvisation, building the bridge between the academic aspects and the art.

He received extra tuition from professional musicians such as Tony Back and Dave McKee and won numerous competitions. He attended Redroofs Theatre School where actress Kate Winslet was in his class.

John was introduced to the music of composer David Hellewell after being left uninspired by the usual classical and jazz repertoire. Having never heard anything like it before, he became enthralled and captivated by Hellewell's unique and exciting music. In 1987, John was accepted as a private student of Hellewell and his dad drove him 160 miles for each lesson on a regular basis.

At age sixteen, John began teaching piano, organ and keyboards as a teacher and performer of Hellewell's music. In 1991, John established M-D Music Productions to record Hellewell's works. This project produced John's album 'Land of Fire' for which he arranged and performed the parts for all the instruments using piano, synths and keyboards.

John says that he feels the numinous in Hellewell’s music which expresses the depth, meaning and brilliance found only in the music of the past masters. This is why he has chosen to dedicate his musical career to David's music.

In 2005 John was honoured and delighted to have David as his best man for his marriage to his fiancé Louisa. David composed a piece “Wedding March” especially for the occasion. David’s music was used throughout the wedding ceremony and was performed and recorded in advance by John on acoustic grand piano.

Presently, John is working on various music projects including acoustic piano recordings of Hellewell's works.

Aside from his musical skills, John is also a Wing Chun instructor (the martial art studied by Bruce Lee), giving regular classes to those interested in this fascinating art. John is a student of Grandmaster Ip Chun. He is a fully certified instructor with the Wing Chun Ip Chun Academy (Hong Kong), the Ving Tsun Athletic Association (HK) and The Wing Chun Federation (UK).