Paul Clarvis

As one of the most requested session musicians, his playing can be heard on hundreds of films including Star Wars, all of the Harry Potter films, all of the Narnia films, all of the Twilight films, The Dark Knight, The Constant Gardner, The Bourne Ultimatum, Burn After Reading, Shakespeare in Love, Fantastic Mr Fox, Billy Elliot, James Bond, Robin Hood, G.I. Jane, Notting Hill, Tron, The Mummy, The Golden Compass, Bee Movie, Troy, State of Play, The Road, The Last King of Scotland, Spygame, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Escapist, Captain America, Shrek, Hugo Cabret, Kung Fu Panda, the Lord of the Rings, Prometheus, The Hobbit, Skyfall and The Great Gatsby, to name just a few.

Moreover, the list of collaborators he has worked with is a veritable ‘who’s who’ in the music world — from Mick Jagger, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Steve Swallow, Harrison Birtwistle, Sir John Dankworth to Paul McCartney, John Taylor and Moondog, Gordon Beck, Brian Ferry and Elton John. He has recorded with Marc Ribot, Sam Rivers, Richard Thompson, The Orb, John Adams, Michael Nyman, Loreena McKennitt, Mark Anthony Turnage and Michel Legrand as well as his own band Orquestra Mahatma.

He was the late Leonard Bernstein’s preferred percussionist in London and featured as a soloist on the last night of the Proms in 1996 in a concerto for saxophone and drum kit by Sir Harrison Birtwistle. In April 1998 he was chairman of the percussion judges for the BBC Young Musician of the Year and together with Sonia Slany he started Villagelife Records.

Paul also helped Rick Smith with the drum arrangement for The London Olympic 2012 opening, writing Dame Evelyn Glennie's part and together with Rick, devised how to train the 1,000 drummers that stole the show at that ceremony.