· composer
Biography
I am a London-based composer, working predominantly in film and television. My work ranges from scoring more than 25 short films to composing music for features, television programmes and advertising. Outside my own scores I have also worked for other composers, including Jocelyn Pook, Sheridan Tongue and Richard Thomas, in roles including programming, orchestration and additional music composition. I obtained a Master's degree in Composing for Film & Television from the National Film & Television School, and prior to that a BA degree in Music from Cambridge University. My work has been broadcast on major channels including BBC 2, Channel 4, More 4 and the Discovery Channel, as well as at a substantial number of international film festivals.
My scores have included Tom Green's award-winning shorts Kid and Brixton 85; the Channel 4 documentary Missing: Claudia Lawrence, directed by Billy Dosanjh; Billy's award-winning documentary short A Miracle In West Brom; Hyebin Lee's award-winning animation Cherry On The Cake; and director Aasaf Ainapore's Satisfaction, starring Michael Parks. I have also contributed music to the acclaimed BBC series Wonders of the Solar System and its follow-up Wonders of the Universe, working for series composer Sheridan Tongue. I worked for composer Jocelyn Pook on her scores for Julio Medem's feature Room In Rome and forthcoming Danish feature Room 304 (for which I composed additional music). I recently completed scoring the low-budget drama feature Uncle David, co-directed by and starring cult performance artist David Hoyle, on which I worked alongside acclaimed stage composer Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer: The Opera), who composed original songs for the film.
My influences are extremely diverse and my experiences in many different areas of music have made me a very open-minded and adaptable composer. Besides years of classical training, I also have extensive experience in music technology and have experimented widely with audio-processing and electro-acoustic music techniques, refining skills that I apply to my film work to expand the timbral range available to me. My film music ranges from entirely acoustic to entirely electronic, but often occupying the territory in-between where the human quality of real musicians combines with the extended textural possibilities of electronics to create music of range and expression.
I have composed and orchestrated for ensembles ranging in size up to a 56-piece orchestra, while my work for other composers also includes programming - incorporating sampling, synthesis and electro-acoustic processing.
At the NFTS I received tuition from Peter Howell (BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Doctor Who) and attended lectures and Q&A sessions with such influential film figures as composers Dario Marianelli and Rob Lane (both previous graduates of the course), directors Stephen Frears and Wong Kar Wai, legendary sound designer and editor Walter Murch, theorist Michel Chion and many others.
My musical experiences cover classical, jazz, rock, funk and electro-acoustic genres, ranging from performances of my chamber compositions in workshops by the Britten Sinfonia to performing as a drummer for the Cambridge Footlights. As a jazz musician I have released two albums under my own name, Still Picture in 2004 and Interpretations in 2007, each of which received extremely positive praise in the jazz press. I am listed in the eighth edition of The Penguin Guide to Jazz and live performances have included venues such as London's 606 Club, Con Cellar Bar and National Portrait Gallery.
My music for advertising has included composing for television and internet promotions, including for ESPN, Mercedes Benz, World Wildlife Fund and the NHS. I also composed the music for two of the top-10 UK winners in the 2008 Emporio Armani Commercial Competition, award winners in the 2009 Kodak Commercial Competition, and the winner of the 2010 Toshiba Commercial Competition.
Publications include my extensive academic journal article The Harmonic and Rhythmic Language of Herbie Hancock's 1970s Fender Rhodes Solos, published in Jazz Perspectives (Routledge) in 2009.
I was a finalist in the 2002 BBC Young Composer of the Year Competition, and my compositions have been broadcast on national radio on a number of occasions, including on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction.