I am a composer and sound designer with many years experience making music, soundscapes and other audio for theatre, installation and movement based performance. For many years, my theatre compositional work has been based around recreating traditional music styles to fit with the work they were commissioned for. I have created work for Nottingham Playhouse, Theatre Hullabaloo, Box Clever Theatre, Kali Theatre and Makers of Imaginary Worlds.
The global pandemic gave me an unexpected period of reflection, assessment and musical self-discovery. Thanks to an Arts Council Grant to develop my creative practice I was able to spend twelve months working with creative mentor Jamie McCarthy to discover a more explorative and personal way of working.
My work is now becoming more experimental. While still rooted in the familiar musical traditions, I am discovering new creative paths. Whether this is in the context of a live performance or a many layered, multi-point, interactive spacial audio soundscape of an installation piece, I am exploring the atmospheres, textures and sonic palette that tempt and guide the listener to find their narrative within the music.
I work from my small professional recording studio using digital sound libraries, synthesisers, sound manipulation and a selection of traditional instruments including percussion, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, accordion and mandolin.
“I never used to think about my creative practice at all I just kind of got on with it. But I realised today while making a bacon sandwich that now I think about my creative practice all the time.
I realised that I’m not thinking as much about what I’m writing in terms of chord structures and melodies. I'm thinking more about the emotional quality of the sounds and textures that I’m using. I'm thinking about how I’m creating the sounds, what has inspired them, how they interact and what they give to the listener.”
My compositional work is always informed by my other strand of work as an experienced and dynamic dance accompanist. I have spent many years providing live music in technique and creative dance classes for professional dance companies and conservatoires, including The Cunningham Company, Rambert Dance Company, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, Richard Alston Dance Company, The Rambert School, London Contemporary Dance School and the national Centre for Advanced Training programme.
I have a deep interest in making performance art for young audiences and I am Co-Artistic Director at WinterWalker, a physical theatre company specialising in small to mid-scale touring theatre for families and children.
