About

I have the great fortune of a long and fulfilling career as composer, author, sound designer, novelist and academic. My biography is fascinating to me, but perhaps not so much to you. So I will sketch it briefly.

I was born on 17 July 1945 in New York, a dozen hours or so after the first atomic explosion on New Mexico – a flash of light and there I was. I was raised and attended school in the States, moving at first from new York to Dallas, and later to San Francisco. Arriving in the UK in 1970 (I had to make sense of the old money), I became naturalised in 1978.

Active as a composer throughout, I began composing chamber music for small ensembles, later music for tv, radio and the stage. To make a living, I began a long career as an academic, principally at Bournemouth University and The National Film and Television School. I trained many film composers and sound designers, quite a few of which are active in the industry. I co-authored a journal, The New Soundtrack, which highlighted the work of eminent music and sound academics and practitioners.

Since 1999, I have been closely associated with the School of Sound, a semi-annual symposium on sound, music and the moving image. Some of the world’s most eminent practitioners and theorists have participated and spoken at this symposium, and I have been honoured to be able to have spoken there as well.

Later in my career, I authored television plays, and two were broadcast by the BBC, back in the day when they accepted a much wider range of work. Later I wrote two novels, Zweck, and Champion, both still in print. A pdf of the text of Zweck is available within this website. I’m told it’s funny.

The rest of the autobiography can be gleaned elsewhere.

To the right there is also an area through which you can contact me, which I hope you will.