My Experience as an Academic, arranger and Teacher

Throughout my time at the University of Cambridge, I was fortunate enough to be able to research and learn about a wide variety of Western art music, spanning from the Medieval period to the present day. While at the University, I wrote dissertations focusing on early modern Europe and the role of music in different societies. I was especially interested in the ability that religious music had to cross traditional denominational, but not socio-economic, boundaries: for example, Catholic Roman musicians emigrated to Protestant Saxony during the seventeenth century, creating splendid music for the Elector's Court, while most of the Saxon population either had very little access to religious music or resisted its presence. I also wrote analytical papers on the music of Hindemith and Bruckner, examining different ways that composers can create a coherent structure in densely chromatic or post-tonal music.

At the Royal College of Music, my attention shifted more to historical performance practice. In 2020, I created a new critical edition of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto for modern clarinet, drawing on both my experience as a clarinettist and research into early modern practices. I also investigated approaches to performing Baroque music on the modern clarinet, using the Telemann Methodical Sonatas and JS Bach Flute Partita as examples that could be successfully transcribed for clarinet. This research was complemented by my studies on the classical clarinet, as I was able to play an original Goulding six-key clarinet from c. 1800 during my time at the RCM.

Alongside my interest in research and writing about music, I also have spent the last few years writing a number of arrangements and orchestrations. In 2021, I was commissioned to provide bespoke arrangements of challenging repertoire for the Royal College of Music Wind Ensemble: my arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 'Overture to the Marriage of Figaro' was premiered in July 2021 and my orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' was premiered in November 2021. 

I have been commissioned to provide a range of music for the NYO Inspire woodwind ensembles. My orchestration of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 'The Willow Song' was performed by NYO Inspire ensembles in collaboration with Coventry Music Hub and in two NYO Inspire concerts in February 2022. My arrangements of Edward Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' and Joe Hisaishi's 'One Summer's Day' were performed in NYO Inspire concerts in February 2023. I also regularly adapt parts and orchestrations for varying educational ensembles.

I supervise for the undergraduate Music Tripos at the University of Cambridge, teaching about early modern and twentieth-century music. I teach the clarinet at Saffron Walden County High School in Essex and also work as a private clarinet and music theory teacher.