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Personal statement

I am a composer who makes open form compositions that explore group behaviours and decision making. The pieces I have made recently consider the way rules can be used to shape group dynamics, facilitating decision-making by participants to create a space to explore the nature of the interpersonal relationships between them.

In pieces such as my series (2014-20) each configuration of cue-givers and cue-responders presents a very different social dynamic and power structure that plays out in the performance. In other pieces, such as (2017) and (2018), factors such as the way people process information with variations in cognitive load are used to develop an orchestral or ensemble texture. I am also interested in the way communities emerge in these environments.

In (2021) a localised decision-making process evidences the priorities that emerge from the players as a group and how they might shift over time, exploring how placing decision-making power in local levels of social organisation might lead to broader consensus. As a result, a lot of my pieces can be played by anybody, and at the moment I always try to develop situations where people with very different experiences can work together. More recently I’ve developed an interest in the arbitrariness of work, which is the focus of (2023), where players operate within a network of arbitrary rules and constraints, trying–or not–to complete the tasks as best they can. 

This work is commissioned, performed and broadcast internationally and I maintain an active professional practice as a composer, as well as a performer in the duo Parkinson Saunders, which informs my teaching and research at Bath Spa. Recent commissions from , , , and the , have led to pieces being performed by leading international ensembles including , Apartment House, , , , , and .

Currently I’m working on new pieces for project, working with students at CRR93 Aubervilliers (Paris), and a collaboration with , and for festival in Norway.

I studied at the University of Huddersfield and latterly with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music. I am Professor of Music at Bath Spa, where I run the and teach on the BA Music, MA Sound and supervise . I also occasionally write about music through journal articles, , or in larger projects such as my book co-authored with John Lely, (2012).

Academic qualifications

• BMus (Hons) Huddersfield
• PGDip Huddersfield
• MusM RNCM
• PhD Huddersfield

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• PRS for Music
• AHRC Peer Review College [2007-10]

External examiners

• Brunel University [BA Music, 2008-11]
• University College Falmouth [BA Music, 2013-]
• Royal Academy of Music [BA Music, 2013-16]
• York St. John University [BA Music, 2016-19]
• City University [MA Music, 2017-20]

PhD examiners

• University of Birmingham
• Birmingham Conservatoire
• Brunel University
• Cardiff University
• City University
• University of Durham
• University of Edinburgh
• Goldsmiths College
• Guildhall School of Music and Drama
• University of Huddersfield
• Leeds University
• Oxford Brookes University
• University of Southampton
• Trinity Laban

Other external roles

• Board Member, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival [2007-2013 ]
• AHRC application reviewer [2006- ]

Teaching specialism

• Composition
• Experimental Music
• Notation