Mike Nock is as much artist as musician.
"For me composition is about painting with sound and I like to explore all the possibilities this presents," he says.
And the possibilities for colour will be endless when the jazz pianist teams up with classical pianist Michael Houstoun in St Paul's Cathedral tonight.
"Michael Houstoun is a consummate musician and to hear the exceptional musicality and insight he shows when he plays my compositions is a very rare and wonderful musical experience for me on many levels," Nock said.
"The concept came about through promoter Philip Tremewan several years ago suggesting we play Wanaka's Festival of Colour together.
"When we first discussed the possibility of having Michael play my music, I sent him some pieces, which he then chose from.
"They have since been recorded on his award-winning CD, Inland."
Nock grew up in 1940s New Zealand in Ngaruawahia and Nelson and started playing piano at 11.
While still a teenager he was on the road with Maori rock'n'roll pioneer Johnny Cooper and the Fabulous Flamingoes.
He later earned his keep in Sydney and London jazz clubs, before winning a scholarship to the world's premiere jazz school, Berklee School of Music (now Berklee College of Music) in Boston, Massachusetts.
He spent the next 25 years in the United States, working with musicians including Dionne Warwick, Yusef Lateef, Coleman Hawkins and John Handy and forming pioneering electronic fusion band The Fourth Way in 1968, which would influence many American bands.
"Apart from a few early lessons from my father, I was largely self-taught until I moved to the United States in 1960.
"There was no choice as to what music I played as in those early days, as I couldn't find a teacher willing to teach me classical music.
"So I went my own way, copying the music I loved and heard on the radio and making up my own compositions," Nock reflects.
"I love the fact that, through playing jazz, I've found the freedom to express myself and, in a way, that communicates to a lot of other people."
Nock returned to Australia in 1986 to teach at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
In 2003, he received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music.
Mike Nock plays solo in St Paul's Cathedral at 1pm and with Michael Houstoun at 8pm today.
