I am a passionate educator and performer working in many musical environments. As director of ‘Environ Music’ the music and education company, I have for thirty five years curated concerts (particularly at Chelmsford’s Cramphorn Theatre), learning initiatives and special needs awareness in the community.
I am perhaps best known in the wider musical world as a composer. I studied at the Royal College of Music, Cambridge and Paris and number among my teachers John Lambert, Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob and Olivier Messiaen. Performances and recordings range from pop and jazz to classical and contemporary and I perform regularly with ‘Triptych’ and my own project ‘The Reduced History of Jazz’.
I hold three posts at London’s Guildhall School (GSMD) as the creative director of ‘Release’, the countrywide composition competition, workshop leader for ‘Guildhall Young Artists’ online and as coordinator and Professor of Composition at Junior Guildhall.
I was the last serving Professor of Saxophone at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall until its closure in 2021.
I was for eleven years principal examiner (Jazz) for Guildhall Exams and held the same post at Trinity College London for a further seventeen years.
For quite a few years I was a supervisor on the music faculty at Cambridge University and remain an examiner and mentor there.
Completing the academic picture here from 1986 till 2002 I worked as a visiting lecturer in creative music making for Utrecht Conservatorium in Holland.
I have nearly 100 works commercially published and a further 50 or so in the repertoire.