I started piano lessons at age 6, violin at 7 and trumpet at age 9. Strongest early musical influence was Louis Armstrong. Played trumpet throughout school years in various bands and orchestras. Started the school swing jazz band. Performed at the Royal Albert Hall with the Yorkshire Schools Brass Band and the National Youth Orchestra.
As a teenager had a developing interest in Baroque music, as well as Stravinsky, Webern and other 20th Century composers.
Age 18 won a music composition award from Queens College Oxford.
Went to Manchester University to study music, specializing in composition and the study of 20th century music. Continued to study and perform Baroque/Renaissance flutes as well. In 1983 won the Proctor-Gregg composition award.
Graduating from university lived a dual existence as a drummer in a rock band on the Manchester club scene, and as a composer/performer of contemporary classical music.
At age 23 spent 3 months studying in Salzburg, Austria and Delphi, Greece with the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, assisted by a bursary from the French government. Spent a summer working backstage at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival for performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle.
In 1985 moved to London to study for an MA in the Early Music department of the Guildhall School of Music. Wrote MA Thesis on 17th century solo instrumental music. Graduated with Distinction. Began to study shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) with Clive Bell.
1985-88 Performing with various music groups in London such as City Garden (new-music ensemble playing Reich, Stockhausen etc), Salaverde Ensemble (Baroque and Renaissance music), Ritmus (percussion ensemble), Was It A Car Or A Cat I Saw (free improvisation octet) and Tortoises in Heaven (ancient Japanese court music).
Tortoises in Heaven was a unique group, playing transcriptions of ancient Japanese Gagaku (music from the 8th Century) on an odd assortment of Western and Eastern instruments. In 1991 I was invited by the Imperial Gagaku Orchestra in Tokyo to study and perform with them.
Co-Founder and director of the Music For A Summer Day festivals at the Barbican, 1987-89. Went to Konya, Eastern Turkey for 3 months to study and play with Sufi musicians.
1988 Moved to Gateshead to work as musical director for community theatre-writing, performing and teaching for street-theatre, arts-education projects and community music.
1990- 1991 Went to Japan to study shakuhachi (Japanese flute) with Master Yokoyama Katsuya. Funded by the Arts Council.
Traveling from Beijing to Berlin on the Trans-Siberian Express in 1991, a chance encounter with some Polish musicians led to the formation of the group East Whistle, drawing on influences from Celtic, East European and Japanese folk music. Played percussion and flutes with this band at folk festivals in USA and Eastern Europe over the next few years.
1992 Devised and facilitated a large-scale education project for the Japan Festival UK, which involved making new music in over 30 schools and colleges.
1993-1998 Returned to Japan with a Japanese Government scholarship to study at Kyoto University as a composition research fellow. Continued shakuhachi studies with Yokoyama Katsuya, later giving solo recitals in Japanese Zen temples across the country.
During these years also composed and performed many soundtracks for Butoh-Japanese contemporary dance.
Helped set up and run several arts-education/community projects in the UK, which had an international exchange with musicians and dancers from Japan. Devised and led an education-performance project for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh and Japan.
1995 Visited the Brasilian Amazon for the first time to take part in Ayahuasca ceremonies (musical healing rituals).
1998-2002 Lived in small communities in the Rainforest, studying the sacred music of spiritual ceremonies.
2002-2006 Lived in Penzance, Cornwall. Musical director for Wildworks Theatre and Kneehigh Theatre, devising music for large-scale site-specific productions in Malta, Cyprus, France and the UK. Composing new music and bringing together traditional musicians from various countries, classical and jazz musicians, as well as local choirs and youth bands.
Created a series of music-education projects in partnership with The Eden Project, bringing together six hundred schoolchildren from across Cornwall to create and perform new music.
Since 2006 Living in Dartington, Devon.
Director of The Eternal Heart Centre, incorporating sacred music into spiritual practice. Teaching Honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi meditation music), giving solo recitals and collaborating with other instruments such as the oud (Arabian lute).