music - guitar

The guitar is a very special instrument for me because I am more intimate with it than any other and I love to fully explore the techniques and range of the instrument. I have had the pleasure of working with many excellent guitarists including: Matt Borgmann, Graham Sims, Kevin Byrne and Gary Ryan across a range of styles and is a founder member of The Guitar Circle, a community dedicated to promoting guitar music.

My music derives from a classical training distilled with other musical influences from my past including: folk, progressive rock, punk, new wave and jazz . I aim to create strong melodic and rhythmic frameworks in tension with complex harmonic explorations and experimental approaches. A strong narrative often defines my works. Distinctive right hand patters derive from influences like Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Martyn and Stephan Grossman gained while I was playing on the London pub folk scene in the mid seventies. Around that time I also began 3 years studying classical guitar and music theory at The Watford School of Music under Tom Hartman and Carl Shavitz. 

All my early composing energies were put into writing for various guitar based bands until, frustrated by the direction of popular music I rediscovered solo guitar. The influence of this period remains and is evidenced by clear melodic phrases and rhythms.

In 2001 I started an important collaboration with Graham Sims. This culminated in the world premiere in November 2001 at The Michael Tippet Centre of two major works Soundtrack 1 and The Fairground. The works were well received: "Substantial pieces... with many effective ideas" (Bath Chronicle). Graham went on to record both pieces on "The Fairground".

A few years back I began a major collaboration with Graham Sims and Kevin Byrne. This involved the composition of the Fanfarria suite. Fanfarria II was premiered by Graham to great reviews at the Assembly Rooms in Bath. click to see the video of this concert In 2006 the more expansive duet Fanfarria I and prelude were premiered by Graham and Kevin on their UK tour including the Tippet Centre and the Bolivar Hall, London. With one and a half years in the writing, help and motivation came from Hayley Savage. You can hear the results and view the scores below. 

see full guitar biography