Category Archives: Uncategorized

Friday, 2nd September 2022 Douglas Adams’ famous quote, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by” gives very little comfort in the days leading up to a deadline. If you don’t make the target, it gives even less comfort in the days that follow. Completing a piece of workContinue reading “A message I wrote to myself on the occasion of missing a deadline”

James Waide has won the 2nd Prize in 1st Annual Wizarding School Composers Competition. The prize will allow James to study and undertake professional development with Joseph Sowa, the organiser of the competition. James won for his Sonata for Piano, composed 2020-21, and available to listen to on his Soundcloud. Joseph Sowa’s Wizarding School forContinue reading “James Waide wins 2nd Prize in the 1st Annual Wizarding School Composers Competition”

28th August, 2022 What is a religious experience? I think I may have had one. I’m a sceptical sort, disbelieving to a fault; disbelieving of myself and of those around me. This general disbelief certainly carries over to my views on religion. People who knew me at school may remember that I was a teenageContinue reading “God, Philip Larkin and Prom 49”

21st August, 2022 I write this, having just watched Newcastle United hold Manchester City to a 3-3 draw in the Premier League. By 63 minutes, all of the goals which would be scored were scored and, as the clock ran on towards the end of the match, so too did a tense expectation arise; somethingContinue reading “How rhythm leads to signification in football, music and life.“

It’s been pretty hot around here recently. Weather systems come and go over Manchester with disregard for the residents of the city. This heatwave came at a very crucial time in my life; I am between jobs, I am growing my teaching business, I am working to meet a deadline for a composition, I amContinue reading “Hiding in the weather”

In recent weeks, as part of a new work regime which is designed to help me fit my musical and academic work alongside my fairly exhausting full-time, non-musical work, I have set myself a task of writing one miniature per week and, let me tell you, I have come to really take a lot ofContinue reading “Writing miniatures and composition of signifiers”

As a teenager, I really tried to avoid listening to Tchaikovsky. Understanding exactly why this was so requires some difficult self-reflection of the sort that I would be hesitant to undertake, but suffice it to say that as an adult I overcame this dislike and I’m now very fond of much of Pyotr Ilyich’s work.Continue reading “Resistant listening: Tchaikovsky and me”

Thursday 21st June, 2022 When I began writing my MMus dissertation on the subject of Musical Borrowing (a musicological field pioneered by J.P. Burkholder), I expected I would be looking at something idiosyncratic and fairly unique to a few compositions by many composers and many compositions by a few composers. For instance, Beethoven seems onContinue reading “Musical Borrowing is a lot more common than you might think”

On Thursday 9th December, I will be conducting a concert at Mill & Honey Café, Manchester, featuring work by myself, as well as composers Xia-Leon Sloane and Nate Chivers. This concert will feature the premiere performance of “Meditative Music”, a piece I wrote in 2017 and which I have sat on for all this timeContinue reading “Two Exciting Premieres next week!”

Over the last year, postgraduate composers from various UK conservatoires have been coming together on Zoom to share work and ideas in seminar settings. This Concert—featuring music by composers at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Trinity Laban and the Royal Northern College of Music—is a continuation of those events andContinue reading “YouTube Concert – Premiering Thursday 6th May at 7:30pm”