Kyle Shepherd

ABOUT

Kyle Shepherd is one of South Africa’s leading pianists, composers, film and theatre music composers of his generation. Internationally recognised for his distinctive compositional style and performances, Shepherd has released 7 jazz albums to date and a number of film, TV and theatre scores including: Blood and Water Season 2 (Netflix) , Savage Beauty Season 1 (Netflix), Surviving Paradise (as additional music composer (Netflix)), Indemnity, Barakat (South Africa’s Official entry into the Academy Awards 2022 and winner for Best score at the 2022 Silwerskerm Film Festival) ,The life and Times of Michael K (Handspring puppet company theatre production based on the nobel prize winning Novel by J.M Coetzee), Fiela se Kind (Silwerskerm award for best score), Vlugtig, Noem My Skollie (South Africa’s official entry to the 2017 Academy Awards) and the chamber opera Waiting for the Sibyl created in collaboration with world renowned visual artist William Kentridge and co-composer Nhlanhla Mhlangu. Kyle has become a frequent collaborator with Kentridge with a number of duet collaborations, performances and performance lectures. In 2014, Kyle was named as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the year for Jazz, and in 2018 received the South African Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Award, hosted by the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), for Best Musical Composition for his composition, Noem My Skollie. Shepherd’s music also features prominently in independent film-maker Nadine Cloete’s documentary, Action Kommandant, based on the untold story of the young South African revolutionary freedom fighter, Ashley Kriel.

The 34-year-old pianist who has a well-established record of celebrated performances in 26 countries around the world including his home South Africa, Europe, Asia (including Japan, India and China), Canada and the USA.

Kyle is the co-creator of the hit Afrikaans TV show Koortjies met Jonathan Rubain, holds a masters degree (Cum Laude) in Music from Stellenbosch University, and is a Unisa National Piano competition winner (2019).

Currently, Kyle continues to promote his newly released solo piano album After the Night, The Day will surely come (Matsuli Records- 2021), international touring with Waiting for the Sibyl and confirmed score composer engagements that includes work with Netflix, a theatre company in Germany and various South African productions. 

DIRECTIONS