In my youth I wrote songs and played guitar in bands.
I then completed a master’s degree in Composition for Film and Television at London College of Music and Media, where I studied with Nigel Clarke.
I have continued to play, sing and compose. Recently I have been writing (amongst other things) piano music, and songs about current events, as well as singing in a choir and learning the oboe.
I am currently planning a performance of my piece Transitions, which combines music and songs with spoken testimonies of people talking about the changes in their lives.
Musical inspirations
All my life I have been inspired by encounters with brilliant music and musicians.
Recently I have been to gigs in my home town of Bristol where I have been blown away by inventive artists like Errol’s Kitchen and Nuala Honan.
Memorable events from longer ago include:
- Hearing singers such as Marta Sebestyen and Remi Ongala at Womad, expanding my perception of what the human voice can do.
- Catching one Saturday morning on Radio 3, just by chance, Ligeti’s violin concerto, conducted by Pierre Boulez. I was hooked.
- Discovering, at a Los Jaivas concert in Amsterdam, that the Chilean hippies in long white robes, who were taking forever to come on stage, were worth waiting for.
- As a child visiting my older cousins in Bradford and hearing their Beatles LPs for the first time.
I’m looking forward to the musical encounters still to come.