SELECTED COMPOSITIONS

‘The Volunteer’ is a brass band march composed for the British Bandsman March Composition Contest.
The music is composed in dedication to the many volunteers who work tirelessly to make the Whit Friday March Contests possible.

‘NQ FANFARE’ was composed for Northern 
 Quarters brass quartet. The work was the first 
 composed as part of a composer association 
 with the group and acted as a ‘musical introduction’.
The main fanfare theme the work develops from is a musical cryptogram 
 created using the member’s initials:

Tom Smith, Laura Conway, Emma Conway and Amy Ewen.




Machiavelli: Ruminations on ‘The Prince’ was composed for the European Brass Band Association’s 8th European Composers Competition (2022). The work is inspired by the writings of renaissance politician, soldier, diplomat and philosopher: Niccolò Machiavelli.

‘St. Paul’s from Fleet Street’ was commissioned by 
he Flowers Band and their Musical Director Paul Holland
 in tribute to lifelong supporter of the band Sheila Parry. 
 The work features the ensemble’s principal cornet player: 
Jamie Smith.
Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723) was a designer, astronomer, 
 geometrician but is best known as Britain’s greatest architect.
 He is credited with designing over 53 churches, as well as
 many other iconic secular buildings throughout the capital 
 following the devastation of the Great Fire of London in 1666.The music, however, takes inspiration from Wren’s best known 
 and arguably his greatest work: St. Paul’s Cathedral.


‘God from the Machine’ was composed for the Black Dyke 
 Band and their musical director Professor Nicholas J. Childs. The work was the first composed as part of the Black Dye Band’s Young Composer Residency and received its world premiere at the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass 2020.

‘Fanfare & Three Poems’ was composed for the British Trombone Society Composers’ Competition 2020. The work is 
written for trombone quartet with a drum kit accompaniment.

The popular hymn ‘Mid all the Traffic marries the North-American folksong Shenandoah to lyrics by English journalist, novelist and poet William Arthur Dunkerley (written under the pseudonym of ‘John Oxenham’). The hymn is very well-regarded in both the Salvation Army and wider brass band movement thanks to a popular arrangement by renowned Salvationist composer Leonard Ballantine.

"Nocturne for Brass Band & Percussion: The Lady with the Lamp" was composed for the BrookWright International Brass Band Composer Competition 2020. The work celebrates the life and achievements of Florence Nightingale on the 200th anniversary of her birth.

‘Sea Song and Hornpipe’ is a song and dance composed for Tenor Horn Soloist and Solo Horn of the Black Dyke Band: Siobhan Bates. 



The work was composed as part of the Black Dyke’s Band ‘Young Composer’ residency. The music draws inspiration from traditional sea songs and the composer’s own experience living in a port city.

‘Minibeasts’ is a three movement work for saxhorn quartet which was commissioned by international renowned Baritone soloist and conductor Katrina Marzella for Saxhorn Fest. 2019. The work is written for a quartet of two tenor horns and two baritones with a piano accompaniment.

The music is based on the bestiary; an early compendium of various animals. Bestiaries date as far back as the second century and became popular in England and France during the middle ages.

Tarot! Tortuous Tarot! was the winning entry of the RWCMD Cory Band Composition Competition 2017. The music is a dramatic concert work based on the occult cards of the same name which came to prominence in Britain during the 16th century.

‘The Deep’ is an original hymn setting of three maritime hymn tunes written as a feature for a brass quartet (Cornet, Tenor Horn, Euphonium and Bass Trombone) with Brass Band accompaniment. The work was composed as part of Cardiff University Brass Band’s sea themed set at the University Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.

The music features the three sea themed hymn tunes ‘Nearer My God to Thee’, ‘Melita’ and ‘Will your Anchor hold?’. The music opens in an atmospheric manner with optional narration of Lord Tennyson’s famous maritime poem ‘Crossing the Bar’. Following this opening, the music uses the material from the three hymns to build to emotive finale.