Biography
I come from Nottingham and developed an interest in music from an early age, beginning formal piano lessons at the age of seven and joining the local church choir. I studied the organ for a couple of years as a teenager and began to compose solo piano music during my student days at what is now Oxford Brookes University.
Following student days I joined various pop and club bands playing keyboards, including a brief stint with a synth-rock outfit called "Sense" whose band leader Paul Joyce went onto pursue a career as a professional composer responsible amongst other things for the theme song "Can We Fix It" from the children’s television programme Bob the Builder.
I also began to cultivate an interest in jazz, attending gigs by local bands in the area and eventually formed my own group playing piano in an outfit called "Long Fall". My second instrument is guitar and much later, after teaching myself some jazz chords I attended a local music workshop and currently enjoy playing guitar in a five-piece jazz ensemble going by the name of "Cool Jazz". We perform occasional concerts in the Nottingham area.
In 1994 I became a member of the Performing Right Society following contributions of published works to production library music CDs over a period of years for which I still receive occasional royalty payments. I was then fortunate enough to have music used in various media outlets on radio and television around the world, the most notable of these being a contribution to the BBC2 series "Ray Mears Wild Food" in the mid-2000’s and providing the theme music for a Japanese news programme.
The current journey begins in 2012, after a period of relative inactivity as a composer and chancing on a Youtube video showing an American pianist called David Nevue playing his own material at a house concert. I began to wonder whether I could perhaps do something like that but had never considered performing as a solo artist, and didn't have any suitable original material. David Nevue actually heads a 24-hour radio station in the US dedicated to solo piano called "Whisperings Solo Piano Radio", and periodically opens submission windows where artists can audition material for possible inclusion on the station playlist.
Shortly after that I composed a piece called "Wedding Day" which, although not realising it at the time would turn out to be one of the tracks on my debut solo piano album.
In 2013 I was asked by a friend of mine if I could compose a short piano piece as a soundtrack to a DVD being produced for the Radiotherapy Department at the local hospital where he worked. I then sourced a local recording studio where I recorded two tracks for consideration and enjoyed the experience of some valuable studio time.
At the same time I had made contact with David Nevue and enquired about the possibility of submitting material for consideration, but instead of the usual three tracks he actually required a complete album to audition. So following a spike in creative activity after seeing him perform that house concert, I did eventually have enough material for a complete album and decided to return to the studio the following year to record my audition CD.
So in the summer of 2014 my debut album "A Dance At Twilight" was born, and following the sessions and at the suggestion of the recording engineer Mick Wilson I released it on various digital platforms and uploaded selected tracks onto various social media music sites. The release was made available for sale on digital stores such as Amazon and iTunes, along with steaming on Spotify.
In November 2014, following successful audition of the CD, I was then admitted as an artist on the rosta of Whisperings Solo Piano Radio (www.solopianoradio.com) currently consisting of around 300 artists worldwide, and three of the album tracks are currently on the station playlist.
I finally decided to take the plunge as a performer with a landmark performance at the Djanogly Recital Hall Nottingham in December 2015. This was a charity concert in aid of the ME Association, with all the music performed on the night being original and having the added bonus of media promotion on BBC Radio Nottingham. Further solo lunchtime concert appearances have since taken place at venues like Southwell Minster and St George the Martyr Church in London with more planned for the future.
In the summer of 2016 I recorded my second album "Stain On The Sunset", which this time is to be commercially released on the MusicandMedia Classical Recordings label, (www.musicandmediaconsulting.com/mmc-recordings) whose owner John Cronin is happy to use his considerable industry expertise to hopefully bring the music to a wider audience. A short tour to promote the release is being planned for 2018.