Mike Lindup began a staggeringly successful professional career as founder and keyboard player in platinum pop band Level 42 and is now an established solo artist, exploring the borders of jazz, Cuban, classical and pop music.
Born in London March 1959 to musical parents, Mike started composing at age 3, and took piano lessons from age 6. He was influenced by a wide variety of music all around him in the family household, from Menuhin to Miles Davis, Bartok through the Beatles to Bossa. At Chethams School of Music, he studied piano, percussion and composition, and sang in senior and chamber choirs, then graduated to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There his musical experience spread to include playing percussion in orchestras in concerts at the Royal Festival and Albert Halls, drums and keyboards in jazz ensembles and participating in pop workshops.
In 1980 he co-founded Level 42 with Phil and Boon Gould and Mark King. In the next 15 years Level 42 went on to achieve worldwide success including album sales of 15 million copies across 13 albums and also finding time to venture into the world of solo piano with the album Changes in 1990.
When Level 42 took a break in 1994, Mike diversified musically and explored styles of music that echoed his breadth of tastes and influences. Almost ten years later, he released his second solo piano album, entitled Conversations with Silence on Naim Label.