Access to HE Diploma (Music)
Role and responsibilities
Azizi provides musical accompaniment for technique and creative classes here at the School.
“I was born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, and have been a performing artist from as young as four years old. I started my dance training with Gail and Ian Parmel at ACE Youth, developing key skills and life lessons that I have been able to carry with me into my professional career. With a curiosity for other art forms, I began to explore my creativity through music, receiving weekly drumming lessons during my years at high school.”
After training, Azizi spent several years as a session musician, touring some of the UK’s most recognised music venues including Royal Albert Hall, Hammersmith Apollo and Birmingham Symphony Hall as well as UK festivals Latitude, Reading and Leeds, Bestival and Electric Picnic.
In 2015 Azizi moved to Leeds as a freelancer working as an accompanist at both Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Phoenix Dance Theatre. He has also been invited to play for touring companies such as English National Ballet, Rambert and VERVE as a guest musician. As well as playing, Azizi composes and records music for contemporary dance being commissioned by companies such as Phoenix Dance Theatre, Linden Dance Company and Kennedy Muntanga (KMDT).
Since 2019 Azizi has been developing a creative practice that encompasses both his dance and musical backgrounds with a heavy emphasis on musicality within movement. This practice is both performance and education-based, incorporating his experience of teaching workshops to both students and professionals. From 2022 he starts a residency with Opera North to further develop his movement practice into a performance piece titled Body Clock which looks at using dance as a tool for both choreography and composition.
