Charlie spent several years under the mentorship of legendary American pianist Richie Beirach, his close friend and most important influence, from whom he received an all-encompassing education in contemporary jazz and harmony. He studied as well with Beirach’s musical counterpart of over fifty years, NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman, in addition to his formal education at two of the UK’s finest music institutions: At the Royal Academy of Music from 2020-24 (Jazz BMus, graduating with First Class Honours), where he studied saxophone with Stan Sulzmann and Martin Speake; and at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, where he was previously a student from 2012 to 2020, taking weekly lessons with Iain Dixon and Jim Muirhead.

A semi-finalist of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 competition, Charlie is heavily influenced by the music of John Coltrane and the post-Coltrane generation of saxophonists. He played lead alto with the London Jazz Orchestra numerous times between 2022-23 and has since gone on to play in Russian-born pianist Regina Litvinova’s International Sextet – with Alex Sipiagin (trumpet), Stephan Urwyler (guitar), Veit Huebner (bass) & Tobias Frohnhöfer (drums) – which debuted at the 2024 Jazz am Rhein festival. He also periodically works with Litvinova and Frohnhöfer in a German-based trio. Together, they have performed with Beirach, as well as the acclaimed Sirius String Quartet.