About Awards&Recognitions Music Links

London

Born in 1954 in London, England, I started my formal music training aged 12 on the cello. Ever since I can remember, I have been creating music, first improvising on an old upright piano later replaced, much to the neighbours' annoyance, by a rather dilapidated grand which had, I remember, a wonderful ringing bass. Hours were spent in experimenting, followed later by more disciplined attempts to notate the results. It is interesting to note that some of these very early ideas have resurfaced in works composed much later. In my middle teens, Saturdays were spent at the Inner London Education Authority Centre for Young Musicians, and school holidays in various London Schools Symphony Orchestras run by the then far-sighted and benevolent ILEA. Advanced studies were at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1973-76, where my main study was cello with professor Vivian Joseph. Although never formally studying composition, I had several of my works performed whilst a student at the Royal Academy.