Fergus McCreadie - Solo

Doors 7:15 PM, Music 8:00 PM - 1 set of music

Mercury Prize-shortlisted pianist Fergus McCreadie returns to the Vortex for a very special solo show, exploring improvisation across jazz and classical styles through the music of Brahms. Fergus will perform Brahms’ Op. 10 Ballades, and take them as the musical DNA of his own improvisations around them.

In the first performance of this kind, this promises to be a unique show, not to be missed.

Fergus McCreadie

With a unique blend of Jazz and Scottish folk that evokes his country’s sublime landscapes, Fergus McCreadie has developed a truly distinct voice in piano writing that is capturing the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide.

Released to instant critical acclaim, Fergus’s 2022 album ‘Forest Floor’ (Edition Records) catapulted him into the international spotlight. The album topped the UK Jazz & Blues charts, prompted sold-out performances across the UK, praise from BBC 6Music, The Times, NME and earned him a 2022 Mercury Prize shortlist nomination, the 2022 Jazz FM Instrumentalist of the Year Award as well as the 2022 Scottish Album of the Year Award - the first jazz artist ever to be awarded the prize.

Fergus’s latest album ‘The Shieling’ (Edition Records) marks a powerful step-change for the trio - recorded in a remote cottage in North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, the music drew on the wild, elemental beauty of the surroundings to create a deeper sense of space and openness that proved an immediate success with critics and audience alike: the album shot to #1 in the OCC Jazz & Blues Chart, prompted a studio interview with Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music, was in heavy rotation on the Jazz FM A-list and was named one of Assai Records’ Albums of the Year.

Fergus also made his film score debut in 2025, with a significant contribution to the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s film Highest 2 Lowest starring Denzel Washington & A$AP Rocky, which the trio recorded at the Manhattan Centre in New York. A huge champion of Fergus’s music, Spike Lee also used Fergus’s song ‘Windshelter’ in a tribute video to Carmelo Anthony filmed for his induction into the NBA Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.