A former student at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music, Kit Downes is a BBC Jazz Award winner and was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2010.

Since then, as soloist, group leader or collaborator, he has gone on to record several acclaimed albums for a variety of labels, including Edition and the iconic ECM. Alongside his piano work, Kit has also carved out a name for himself in the world of the pipe organ, his 2018 ECM album Obsidian featuring intimate improvisations on three small parish church organs in Suffolk and London.