Contemporary Pianist & Composer Shigeru Kawai Artist

Born into a musical family in Shropshire, England, David Hicken was introduced to music young. He began training at the age of three with piano lessons. By the age of nine he was having clarinet and organ lessons and had joined his school’s choir and orchestra.

At 14, he played the organ at local church services and at 15 was featured in concerts. On his 16th birthday, David performed his first solo organ recital.

Stowe School, a prestigious boarding school with alumni such as Sir Richard Branson and David Niven, awarded David a full scholarship. At Stowe, David discovered synthesizers and experimented with multitrack tape machines to sequence works by Bach. The organ at Stowe School was one of the country’s largest, and David gave solo recitals there.

David left England at the age of seventeen to study at Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where he earned one of the largest scholarships. It was a fantastic chance, but David was disappointed to discover that he already knew most of what his instructors were teaching.

In Baltimore, David began composing with synthesizers and sequencers. He created a few demo recordings and submitted them to record companies in England. Three firms offered contracts to him, and he decided to sign with President Records. When he was 19 years old, his debut album, The Final Toccata, was released.

Next, David moved to Los Angeles, where he accepted organist and Director of Music positions. In LA, David was exposed to musicians from other genres. He met Patrick Moraz, who introduced jazz to David and worked with a drummer to write and record pop songs. Soon David had his own recording studio and signed with Prestige Records to release his second album in 1993.

He soon became director of music at Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, which is known for its celebrity weddings and funerals. This led to him performing as a soloist with several orchestras and a two-record contract with LaserLight Records.

After a sabbatical in which David moved to Thailand and became obsessed with Scuba Diving, he ended up accepting an organist position on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu. During this time he composed three solo albums and, later, a solo Christmas album.

In 2016, David released two further albums and was nominated for Album of the Year by Whisperings Solo Piano Radio. Further albums followed in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Today, David lives in the north of Thailand and continues to compose.