Feb—May 2018

I'm excited to announce that I'll be writing a piece for the wonderful Newcastle-based Royal Northern Sinfonia. They have commissioned me as part of their 60th Anniversary season, and I will be writing for their core group plus Lars Vogt on piano. The premiere will be in February, check out the season announcement at sagegateshead.com.

In May, Listenpony is going on tour to Manchester, Birmingham and London. We're taking our 16th programme, with performances from George Fu, La Vaghezza, Cinema, Aldous RH and Elena Tonra, and new music from Robin Richards, Daniel Fardon and Joanna Ward. I wrote a piece for George called A Lady at her Toilet, and I'll also be driving the minibus. Details and tickets here.

For the last 5 weeks, I have been a musician-in-residence at the fantastic Banff Centre. I have to thank the generosity of the Royal Academy of Music, Help Musicians UK and some private donors for allowing me to be there, it was a fantastic experience.

I went there principally to work on the piece for 15 instruments I've written for the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble and Oliver Knussen, which I've named Dances of Travel, but I also worked on some solo piano pieces, sketches for few chamber works and a whole load more. And I met and worked with some great musicians.

I was a brilliant and surreal experience composing in a little room on the side of the mountain in Canadian winter (-47°C was the coldest...). ...pictures up on my instagram soon.