Kate St. John is a respected musician, player, composer, producer and arranger. Classically trained on oboe and later learning saxophone and accordion she is at home in all manner of musical styles from pop, jazz to classical, reading or improvising. She received a BSC in Music from City University and in the early eighties she was in the Ravishing Beauties the new wave chamber group with Virginia Astley and Nicky Holland. Following that she was a member of the Dream Academy for eight years (remembered for their world-wide hit Life In A Northern Town). During that time she was in a number of experimental projects such as Steve Nieve’s Pink Orchestra (inventing live music for silent movies). In the nineties she was a member of Van Morrison’s band for four years playing oboe, cor anglais and alto sax on five albums and in numerous world tours. In 1998 she toured the USA and recorded with Violinist virtuoso Nigel Kennedy on his improvised classical/jazz versions of Hendrix songs.

In 1999 Kate was Musical Director, oboist and arranger at London’s Barbican for a Nick Drake tribute concert, co-producing a subsequent tribute album with Joe Boyd. In April 2004 she was a featured oboist and arranger in Hal Wilner’s Nino Rota/Fellini tribute concert at the Barbican alongside Carla Bley and other Jazz luminaries. Also in 2004 she was picked by Tom Waits to be a member of the 8 piece Magic Bullets band for the new production of The Black Rider directed by Robert Wilson which showed at London’s Barbican in May, the A.C.T Theatre San Francisco in Sept/Oct, at the Sydney Festival in Jan 2005 and in Los Angeles in May 2006.

In May 2005 she was Musical Director, performer and arranger at the Cork festival for the Daughters of Albion concert featuring female English singers such as June Tabor, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy. This concert was also performed and filmed for the BBC at London’s Barbican in February 2006. In spring 2006 she put together and played in the band for the London sessions of Hal Wilner’s Sea Shanty album Rogues Gallery working with amongst others Nick Cave and Bryan Ferry. In October 2006 she was one of the artists in the band for Came So Far For Beauty in Dublin playing with, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton and others. She is currently doing workshops with Damon Albarn of the band Gorillaz for Monkey Journeys To The West a large scale Western/Chinese opera to be premiered later this year.

SOLO ARTIST

In 1992 she started her association with the All Saints record label as a composer, player and singer. This resulted in The Familiar, a collaborative album with pianist and composer Roger Eno. She and Roger then joined up with Bill Nelson and Laraaji to form the eclectic, avant-garde collective Channel Light Vessel who released two improvisational albums, Automatic and Excellent Spirits.

In 1995 Kate’s romantic and atmospheric first solo album, Indescribable Night, came out. Produced by her and French composer Joseph Racaille it featured her singing, playing, compositions and arrangements and was met with critical acclaim:

1997 saw the release of her second solo album, Second Sight. Showcased at the Purcell Room in London’s Southbank, it is a cinematic and imaginary work, mixing classical, jazz and folk idioms in her own unique way:

Over the years Kate has played with many different artists and bands and toured with various artists including Van Morrison, Joolz Holland’s Big Band, Egberto Gismonti and Nigel Kennedy.

In Paris she has been a featured performer on music composed for contemporary dancer Phillipe Decoufle’s company and collaborated with composer Joseph Racaille on many concerts and recordings.
Apart from producing and arranging her own albums, she has done string and woodwind arrangements for various artists and produced two albums for Russian artist Boris Grebenshikov and his band Aquarium (the first of which won Best Russian Album of 1995). Her most recent woodwind and string arrangements are on singer Kathryn Williams’s current album “Leave To Remain”.