News
Earth/Percent Earth Day 2023
April 20, 2023
I’m delighted to be part of @earthpercent’s Earth Day initiative this year, being one of 60+ artists passionate about the planet who have donated an exclusive track that you can now buy on Bandcamp and help us raise funds for climate action. Head to http://earthpercent.bandcamp.com where you will be able to buy the slow movement […]
Readmore >>BAFTA nomination
January 6, 2023
Beware of Trains, with music by myself and Oliver Cripps, is on the longlist for a BAFTA award in the ‘Best British Short Animation’ Category 2023. Shortlist announced on 19th January. Read more about Beware of Trains on the Pearly Oyster Productions website.
Readmore >>MASAward shortlist
September 30, 2022
Music for Beware of Trains, written with Oliver Cripps, has just been shortlisted for a MASAward in the Best Composition for a Short Film Category! Awards announced on 13th October. Full list here.
Readmore >>New Film Premiere
June 14, 2022
Collaborating with Oliver Cripps, I’ve written music for Emma Calder’s new film ‘Beware of Trains’. The film has been selected at various animation festivals (including Annecy, Ottowa and Edinburgh) and has just received it’s premiere in Zagreb. The film protrays a woman with extreme anxiety: “devoured by four major preoccupations – the man she met […]
Readmore >>Kitchen Sink Songs!
February 11, 2022
The wonderful Year 6 Chamber Choir at Great Missenden school learnt and sang my new Kitchen Sink songs, written during lockdown when I spent quite some time looking at kitchen utensils and wondering what their lives were like. Massive thanks to music teacher Emma Hulbert and the school for letting me work with with such […]
Readmore >>New OrchLab audio playalong for adults with disabilities
October 6, 2020
Really pleased with the LPO’s new OrchLab website, which went live a few weeks ago. The project encourages creative muic-making for adults with disabilities and is a partnership with Drake Music. And a new activity has been added: an audio playalong I’ve created for Mussorgsky’s Great Gate of Kiev!
Readmore >>Creepy Soundtrack!
Produced as part of a summer project with Create working with young carers in Dorset. We had such a fun time creating creepy sounds for this fabulous short film. Many thanks to @jaclyn vu for allowing us to use her film.
Readmore >>Lockdown Sketch
August 10, 2020
I wrote this piece during Lockdown for my great friend, workshop leader and fab tubist Mike Poyser. I wanted to explore what was possible playing together when we can’t be in the same room, so I tried out several techniques which allowed for flexibility and responsiveness between us. This recording we made over zoom, with […]
Readmore >>Another Experiment
July 30, 2020
Finished another exploration, this time matching music to different clips of animal footage. Hope you enjoy, and thanks to Joe Steele for a fab sax solo!
Readmore >>Experimenting with sound and picture
July 23, 2020
During lockdown I bought myself the programme Protools and have been learning/experimenting with it. Here’s a first attempt at doing some sound to picture, using, amongst other things, a waterphone!
Readmore >>Laptop Lockdown for #SetOperaFree
Working remotely with tenor Robin Bailey on an opera aria for #SetOperaFree – a project to create opera through a game of consequences. The piece is called ‘Third time this week’. What hasn’t Robin received – and what will other composers create next??
Readmore >>Bridget Riley/London Sinfonietta
January 15, 2020
From December 2019 I’ve been working with young musicians from Haringey, Waltham Forest and Enfield on a London Sinfonietta project using the art works of Bridget Riley as a starting point. The results will be arranged for youth orchestra and performed at the South Bank Centre in March!
Readmore >>Sinbad!
December 20, 2019
In December 2019, classes from Tower Hamlet primary schools created their own Sinbad stories inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov’s piece, Scheherezade. And then they met the City of London Sinfonia and performed their pieces with full orchestral accompaniment! A great time was had by all!
Readmore >>Oxford Lieder Festival performance
October 30, 2019
Classes from Europa School and Caldecott Primary school took part in this year’s Oxford Lieder project, using items from the Ashmolean Museum’s Chinese collection as a starting point to create to phenomenal musical stories. The performed wonderfully at the Ashmolean in October 2019.
Readmore >>CLS Doggy-ness
May 7, 2019
Recent projects with City of London Sinfonia explored composition with 5-7 year olds based around the music of Bach and his dog (who didn’t even have a name!!). Photo: Suzi Corker for City of London Sinfonia, 2018
Readmore >>Lost Box of Stories – Performance 13th August
June 28, 2018
The Lost Box of Stories is coming to London as part of the Tete a Tete opera Festival! It’s a fun, interactive show for familes, with music and storytelling. There’s also a pre-show song-writing workshop so we can create a song to perform as part of the performance. For families with children aged 5-11. Workshop […]
Readmore >>NCO success!
April 20, 2018
The performance of No Place Like …. NCO was a great success at the Anvil, Basingstoke on 15th April. The participants created a great piece and such a polished performance in just 4 days. Really proud of the hard work they put in and to have been able to facilitate the piece!
Readmore >>Working with National Children’s Orchestra
April 6, 2018
I’ll be working with the NCO’s under 13s orchestra after Easter creating a piece called ‘No place like …. NCO’. Our starting points are the players thoughts and feelings about their experiences in NCO. The piece is the orchestra’s response to Kerry Andrew’s No Place Like, part of the BBC’s Ten Pieces repertoire. We start […]
Readmore >>The Lost Box of Stories
February 5, 2018
Coming very soon: my new show written with the wonderful story-teller Clare Murphy. This interactive show is for KS2 students tells the story the story of Anansi losing the Sky God’s box of stories. His adventures are illustrated by Sinfonia Cymru musicians (Violin, Bassoon, French Horn, Harp and Marimba) and are told by myself and […]
Readmore >>Little Missenden Festival
January 28, 2018
A sharing of work created by KS1 children on this fabulous project takes place 1.30pm, 1st February at Great Missenden Church. Schools taking part are Great Missenden Primary, Hyde Heath School and Little Missenden School. Stories of Tigers, super hero Elephants and other creatured of the jungle. The project takes place as part of the […]
Readmore >>A level seminar
January 28, 2018
On 24th January, I gave an A-level seminar as part of the LPO’ Bright Sparks series of educational events. It was with live examples played by string orchestra and featured music by Bach, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Bartok and Mozart. Thoroughly enjoyable and hope the students found it interesting! Image: Helena Lovell
Readmore >>Radio 4 Documentary – Take Flight
October 30, 2017
A documentary about the project Take Flight, for which I wrote the music, is to be broadcast Monday 6th November at 4pm. Or listen later on iplayer – see here or below for the link to the programme page.
Readmore >>Sydney Project Documentary
October 14, 2017
Australian broadcaster ABC has just shown a 22-minute documentary made around a project I ran earlier in the year in Sydney. To watch it, see ‘recent work’ on the home page. Myself and players from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields worked with very talented young musicians from the Sydney area. Excitingly, […]
Readmore >>Take Flight Performance
September 24, 2017
Thanks to all the 100 young dancers who took part in Take Flight and especially to choreographer Rachel Attfield – it looked fantastic. Radio 4 documentary to follow soon!
Readmore >>Take Flight Video
September 14, 2017
Very excited about Take Flight premiere on Saturday 16th September as part of Hull City of Culture. Really great video preview video of the piece is now on facebook, to view it click here.
Readmore >>Take Flight first performance
September 8, 2017
The first performance of Take Flight, a community ballet, commissioned by Royal Opera House Learning and Participation will take place in Trinity Square, Hull on 16th September at 15.45 and 16.45. Really looking forward to it, but don’t quite know what to expect! Radio 4 documentary about the piece and it’s development to be broadcast […]
Readmore >>Best Original Composition nomination
July 1, 2017
My music for Roger Ballen’s Theatre of Apparitions has just been shortlisted for a the international Music And Sound Award in the Best Original Composition – Short Film Score category. Winners announced July 13th!
Readmore >>New Case Study Published
June 1, 2017
My Case Study, commissioned by Sound Connections, Men in Early Years: a Personal Reflection and Study by Music Practitioner John Webb has just been published. Download it here
Readmore >>Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Sydney Opera House
May 17, 2017
Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Sydney Opera House Just finished a highly successful Create, Cultivate, Orchestra project with Academy of St Martin in the Fields, working in Sydney and culminating at the Sydney Opera House. Photo by Ken Leafore, Sydney opera House Read the article in ABC News here
Readmore >>Into The Light
December 7, 2016
Into The Light wins 2016 British Composers Award – Education or Community category. Commissioned by Buckinghamshire Music Hub and Aurora Orchestra. Listen to Into the Light (2015) for massed children’s choir, 2000 children and Aurora Orchestra. Conducted at the Royal Albert Hall by the Composer. Part 1 Part 2
Readmore >>Roger Ballen’s Theatre of Apparitions
Roger Ballen’s Theatre of Apparitions (with my music!) is at London International Animation Festival, December 3rd 7pm. www.liaf.org.uk It’s also recently been screened at Encounters Festival in Bristol and London Film Festival. “The music is like Arnold Schönberg on steroids”! – youtube comment
Readmore >>Create, Cultivate, Orchestrate project
July 27, 2016
Academy of St Martins film on the Create, Cultivate, Orchestrate project from summer 2016 now online!
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