“Nimble piano strokes and comps lift, dip, and flutter like angels, sending echoes bouncing off the walls. It’s a lonely feeling. It’s the opposite of, say, having a group of pianists play at the same time. Here, you take the playing of one, set it against itself, and watch as it spider-cracks outward like ice on the lake. Cold, crisp, and clinical; that’s how I like my context. Liow and Tarnawsky bend the corners of time effortlessly, turning a good idea into a great recording.”
~ Grant Purdum, Tiny Mixed Tapes
An award winning jazz pianist, composer and bandleader from Melbourne, Australia, Nathan Liow is known for his fierce originality and masterful command of the instrument. He is a regular fixture at Melbourne’s jazz establishments including Jazzlab, Paris Cat Jazz Club, Birds Basement, Uptown as well as major Australian Jazz and Arts festivals nationwide.
Nathan is a sessional accompanist and piano teacher at The University of Melbourne’s Jazz and Improvisation faculty, and has studied under legendary, Grammy-nominated American pianists Fred Hersch, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, Jean-Michel Pilc as well as closer to home ARIA Award winning pianist and composers Andrea Keller and Tony Gould.
His compositions are featured on a diverse array of projects including original soundtrack for the Melbourne International Film Festival Official Selection films “Creswick” and award-winning film “Burrow”, both by acclaimed filmmaker Natalie James. He is also an active performer in LGBTQIA+ spaces in Melbourne, including for events at Midsumma and at the Victorian Pride Centre.
His work frequently graces gallery and installation spaces, his latest installation work, “Air(borne)” premiering via Diversity Arts Australia in tandem with works by other eminent Asian-Australian artists, and exhibited at Sydney’s 4A Gallery for Contemporary Asian Art, and at RMIT. His other gallery installation works include his cross-pacific collaboration with social practice artist Carmen Papallia (CAN), “Music For Eyes” as a part of Incinerator Gallery's exhibition “With Seeing Hands”. Liow's hybrid installation work, “Artifacts”, was exhibited at West Space Gallery as a part of Next Wave Festival, in remote-collaboration with Brooklyn-based noise-artist Angus Tarnawsky (US).
More recently, he was commissioned by the City of Melbourne to broadcast a series of concerts from Melbourne’s underground classical institution, Tempo Rubato, and is regular performer in the Melbourne International Jazz Festival alongside Australia’s most eminent jazz musicians.
Participating in the prestigious Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in 2014 afforded Liow the opportunity to study under the mentorship of Grammy-nominated, Downbeat and NPR acclaimed New York pianist and composer Vijay Iyer. Liow is also an alumnus of NYU’s School for Improvised Music where he studied under the tutelage of Fred Hersch, Geri Allen and Jean-Michel Pilc, and was awarded the Athenaeum Prize and the Nisbet Full Scholarship during his time studying at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.
He has been engaged by prestigious global brands including Moët & Chandon, Patek Philippe, Jimmy Choo, Marshall White, and the Judith Durham Estate, as well as performing for Australian Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Tony Abbott, ASEAN world leaders, the Victorian Governor Her Excellency Professor Margaret Gardner, and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.
His career also includes high-profile performances, from supporting Michael Bublé’s Melbourne shows to the birthday of a leading businesswoman counted among the nation’s most successful, and the wedding of Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, hailed as the “society wedding of the year.”. His music has been featured on BBC 1Xtra, ABC Radio, Radio National, Triple J, RRR, PBS and 3MBS, and he has toured internationally, performing shows in New York City, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and Shanghai, China, where he resided in 2009-2010.
Read Grant Purdum's review of "Artifacts" on Tiny Mixed Tapes.
Upcoming Performances
26 SEP
Paris Cat Jazz Club
w/ Williams Sings WinehouseTICKETS
4 OCT
Paris Cat Jazz Club
w/ PARTNERS IN JAZZ:
A Night of Dex & Slide Played by Blackham/RozakeasTICKETS
8 OCT
Le Splendide
w/ Raleigh Williams Trio17 OCT
Paris Cat Jazz Club
w/ Richard PavlidisTICKETS
18 OCT
Brunswick Green
w/ Chris Maunders24 OCT
Paris Cat Jazz Club
w/ Liz VioliTICKETS
7 NOV
Paris Cat Jazz Club
w/ Blue Note ‘62TICKETS
13 NOV
Maison Batard : Le Club
w/ Raleigh Williams QuartetRESERVATIONS