Azalea, 2011

A commission from a colleague at Trinity College of Music who wanted an Eastern music inspired composition for her clarinet, viola and piano trio. Performed here in Waltham Abbey by Colin and Jane Eldred.

Circles, 2010

The last of my collaborations with Verity Thirkettle from September 2010, Circles is a piece for violin and piano. She suggested a theme of the approaching 2012 Olympics; I took the beautifully simple original Olympic logo as my starting point. I created music designed to be continuous and yet constantly morphing: the piece is centred around a repeated Bb in the middle of the piano keyboard, around which the beat and harmony are modulated until the climax where the Bb is finally let go. Its premiere performance was on 31st March 2011 at St. Alfeges in Greenwich.

Talk, As It Were, Into Vacancy, 2010

A commission from viola player Rob Tuson for his final exam in 2010. The title comes from a book I was reading at the time, in which was described a famous scientist who was so shy that to converse with him, one had to merely approach and speak, and if he was interested he would respond and thus a conversation ensue. To me, this strikes parallels with the process of writing music: which is composed, and then played, to be received or not on the interest of the listener. The recording is Rob (viola) and myself (piano) playing in the studio at Trinity.

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Downstream, 2009

Downstream was written for the Contemporary Music Ensemble at Trinity, conducted by Gregory Rose, in 2009. The structure of the piece is supposed to evoke the feeling following a stream from its start at a spring, through a stream and into a river.

Sweet Chance, 2007

Written and recorded when I was the leader of the East Riding Senior String Quartet in 2007. The only existing recording dates from then, and is myself (violin 1), Leah Smith (violin 2), Elizabeth Salvage (viola) and Lucy Smith (‘cello). This is the earliest recording of any of my compositions.

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