Contingency Music

     I am a Liverpool based composer and guitarist, working variously in the fields of experimental, minimalist and improvised music. I am currently in the final stages of a PhD research project at Liverpool Hope University, studying the dynamics of the composer/performer relationship in the creation of music. Alongside my academic work, I act as musical director for Liverpool Guitar Society, coordinator of the Liverpool Composers' Group, and am one half of Graculus, a free improvisation woodwind/guitar duo.

 

         I was born in 1968, and took up the guitar as a child. After seven years spent as a student of zoology at the University of Liverpool (BSc 1990, PhD 1994) I returned to the full time pursuit of music, studying and then teaching at Liverpool Community College. In 2008 I began attending Liverpool Hope University, studying first for an MA in Music Since 1900, and then for a (second) PhD. 

 

          I have a large and ongoing portfolio of original compositions, many of which are available to look at, download and perform on this website. More will be added in due course. Some of these are written for specific instruments or ensembles, but most of my work is flexibly scored for soloists or ensembles of any size and forces. These pieces are generally quasi-improvisational in nature, and explore ways in which the performers might collaborate with me, as composer, to create the music as heard. 

 

          If you'd like to contact me, or have a go at playing any of my compositions, please do. I'd be glad to hear from you. Also, please do follow the links to some of the other people and groups with whom I collaborate.