Gareth Lockrane
BMus, MA, Hon ARAM Director of Junior Jazz and Professor of Jazz Saxophone and Flute
In 1994 Gareth Lockrane enrolled on the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Stan Sulzmann, Hugh Fraser and Eddie Parker.
Here he struck up strong musical relationships with fellow students the Fishwick brothers, Tom Cawley, Osian Roberts, Orlando le Fleming and many others.
In 1997 his band The Jazz System, formed with Osian Roberts, was a finalist in the Vienna Jazz Festival Grande Concours de Jazz. In 1998 he studied on the Lake Placid Jazz Course in New York with Joe Lovano, Dick Oatts and Jim McNeely and in 2000 was a finalist in the Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. Around this time he also expanded his sonic and expressive range by adding the piccolo, alto and bass flutes to his arsenal.
In 2002, he formed the band Grooveyard with saxophonist Alex Garnett which released a critically acclaimed CD Put The Cat Out, which went on to win the Best European Jazz Group award in the 2003 Granada Jazz Festival. After extensive gigging mostly around the London scene, they released the album The Strut in autumn 2012 which was named Jazz Album of the Year in Mojo magazine. He also leads his own septet, whose debut album No Messin' won best album in the 2010 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
In 2006, Gareth enrolled on the prestigious MA course in film composition at the National Film & Television School, graduating with a commendation in 2008. He has composed the music for fiction, documentary and animation films that have gone on to appear and win numerous prizes at many international film festivals.
He fulfilled a long time ambition in 2008 and formed his own 18-piece big band, featuring some of London’s top musicians. Making their debut in the London Jazz Festival, the Gareth Lockrane Big Band is a natural extension of Gareth’s other projects, Grooveyard and his septet, whilst at the same time being a fiery and unruly animal in its own right. The band play exclusively Gareth’s compositions and arrangements and have appeared at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club to sell-out crowds. They released an acclaimed album 'Fistfight at the Barndance' in 2017 and a recent second album 'Box of Tricks' released in Oct 2025.
As a sideman, Gareth has been involved in many diverse projects, most notably as a key member of the late great Bheki Mseleku’s group from 2005 to 2008, and in Phil Robson’s IMS quintet in 2011 with US tenor star Mark Turner, as well as recording and performing with Dick Oatts, Elio Villafranca, Deepak Ram, Quincy Jones, Louis Cole, JTQ, Incognito, David Holmes, Jacob Collier and many others. He has also appeared regularly as a Rising Star on Flute in the prestigious Downbeat US critic’s poll.
He is also a notable jazz educator; as well as running the Junior Academy Jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music he regularly teaches on the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama Trinity College of Music jazz degree and post graduate courses.