The University of Southampton music department has confirmed the conferring of a Turner Sims professorship on pianist and composer Dave Stapleton. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama piano graduate and co-founder of the jazz independent record label Edition last year released his eighth album to date, Flight, featuring his jazz quartet plus the Brodowski string quartet. In his new position Stapleton will mentor and lecture university music students. In the spring he appears with the Edition quartet at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival as part of Connexions with a concert at the Parabola on 4 May. SG

Dave Stapleton pictured