2025 starts with a bang! During January, I’m ‘composer of the month’ at the TopMusic.co which is an educational organisation founded and run by Tim Topham, a music educator who I had the pleasure of meeting when I visited Australia last Summer. Earlier this week ten of my elementary piano pieces were published by TMS (TopMusicSheets) as a download to accompany the popular TopMusic.co magazine.

Based in Australia, TopMusic is a useful educational website providing extensive music resources for instrumental teachers. You can subscribe by clicking here.

I also gave the following interview about my music which has been published by the TopMusic magazine’s January edition. You can subscribe to the magazine by clicking here.

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What inspired you to become a composer?

I started composing as a student at college. Harmony lessons dictated that we wrote in various styles, mimicking the great composers. This ‘pastiche’ way of working was really useful, encouraging me to become familiar with disparate styles, structures, and of course, harmony. Harmonic grounding is probably the singular most important element in relation to composition.

After college, I didn’t compose for a long time mainly due to the all-consuming task of working as a pianist, teacher and examiner. But on recovering from an illness, I needed to find a different direction and found myself drawn to writing music as a way of learning to use computer software programmes and, more importantly, as a reaction to the mostly Twentieth century and contemporary music that I was listening to at that time. When I ceased performing regularly, I became an avid ‘listener’ in every sense of the word, and found myself hearing vast amounts of music, most of which I had never heard before. It became my own musical ‘adventure’. Digesting scores, I realised the need to find my own ‘voice’ and this prompted my first compositional attempts.

I’ve always considered composing as a lovely addition to my teaching and writing: they all go hand-in-hand, one complementing the other. Having said that, composing is such fun and one can let one’s imagination run wild!

How would you describe your compositional style?

As a mainly educational piano composer, my music must adhere to set levels and it should also be tonal as students rarely enjoy dissonant styles. But this doesn’t mean that one can’t venture off-piste and write harmonically interesting music for certain projects. My Ghostly Piano Tales is one such example. This set of 24 piano pieces for elementary to early intermediate level students has already proved popular with teachers and their pupils. It was published in April 2024 by Schott Music and, as the title suggests, is full of ‘spooky’ music.

However, Ghostly Piano Tales might not be considered a usual ‘Halloween’ style publication because each piece tells a specific story, which has been printed next to the music in both English and German text. I’m interested in the occult and wanted to create a ‘story book’ for both children and adults to enjoy and one informing them about different paranormal phenomena from around the world. Therefore each ‘tale’ is diverse and eclectic, and the music mimics this: it’s often atmospheric in style and I’ve used different piano effects such as knocking on the piano lid, overholding notes, and employing elongated sustaining pedal techniques. But there are still lots of nice tunes for those who enjoy them as well as several jazz-inspired numbers.

Writing music for friends and colleagues, or professional musicians, I tend to experiment a little more. I like employing ‘darker’ harmonic progressions and exploring what might be described as esoteric or supernatural topics. A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece for violin and piano called Therianthropy which pushes the norms of tonality. It’s also demanding for both instruments technically and musically despite its relatively short length. I don’t think I could ever forgo tonality and become a purely atonal writer as it’s not a style I empathise with, despite enjoying listening to it.

Do you have a favourite piece you’ve composed? What makes it special to you?

About seven years ago I wrote a 15-minute four movement orchestral piece for chamber orchestra. I was invited to write it by a conductor who I met on a tour to the Far East and who wanted a work by a female composer to play with his orchestra. Once I had completed it, he had already left his position as conductor and the piece was never performed. It was sad but it taught me so many important lessons about writing music for a larger group of instruments and how this type of composing differs from writing for the piano. Because of this, it’s a special piece for me.

Probably my favourite piece is one written in 2019 for a flautist. It’s a 15-minute four movement tour de force for flute and piano called Shamanic Mass. I was originally inspired to write this piece after a visit to the Island of Gozo (near Malta in the Mediterranean Sea) where I enjoyed a spiritual retreat which focused on various spiritual practices, amongst which one was the work of the Shaman. After enjoying an exhilarating drumming ceremony, I was intrigued by the mystical process of divine healing.

Shamanism is an ancient healing tradition and the Shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits: some consider this similar to a religious practice. Shamanic Mass’s four movements are entitled ‘The Ritual’, ‘Shamanic Death’, ‘Flight of the Soul’ and ‘Transfiguration’. It’s a dark, programmatic work using many flute ‘effects’ and, even though it hasn’t been published as yet, I think it’s my best work to date.

Publications that I particularly enjoyed writing would include my series First Repertoire For Little Pianists published by Willis Music in 2022. This series, intended for beginners, has been written as supplementary material to go alongside piano method books. The collection consists of 50 of my original compositions – 25 in each volume. Book 1 is designed for those who have worked through their first method book, and Book 2, following on from Book 1, is for late beginner. The books also feature many duets for student and teacher. Pieces have descriptive titles and all have games, exercises and activities, and there are also some cute illustrations to inspire a youngster’s performance.

Who (or what) are your main influences or sources of inspiration?

As you can see, I’m influenced by visits to various places around the world as I love to travel. The addition of a story or ‘meaning’ to a piece of music transforms it from what might be considered a technical exercise to a work which has the ability to move its listeners or touch their souls. This is important for me. A title is just the beginning, and if they are merely suggestive of musical forms, such as a sonata or sonatina for example, I think it’s more challenging for performers to understand the composer’s intent. A story is often required and I’ve always love the concept of words and music working together.

In terms of musical styles, I’m drawn to minimalist composers purely because I find how they create their compositions, interesting. What might seem repetitious usually has a rhythmic or harmonic momentum driving the music forward or onwards, which I find captivating.

Can you discuss any upcoming projects or pieces you are currently working on?

I’ve just written a piece for a pianist colleague who is collating a number of works by different composers for a book and a CD over the next year. The topic for this project is Gregorian Chant, which might be considered unusual for a piano composition. I immediately took to the ‘darker’ side of this subject and have incorporated the Dies Irae theme. Most musicians will know the significance of this melody, as it has been used by countless composers to create a deeply spiritual link to many forms of the occult. It took me a few days to write the piece (it’s around 3 minutes in length) and I had a lot of fun with the harmonic language.

Another current project is a further volume for my series Snapchats Duets & Trios (published by 80 Days Publishing). I’ve been working with several groups of young piano students on duets and trios recently, and it became clear that despite being reasonably high level players in terms of their graded exams, sight-reading was a skill which they hadn’t yet incorporated into their practice schedules. I immediately knew that a simpler book was necessary, suited to early sight-readers. Snapchats is currently a three-book series moving from Initial level to Grade 6 (ABRSM standard). The new book will be for beginner up to Initial level and I’m really enjoying creating the pieces.

In 2025, we will publish three more Schott Student Editions (I’ve already written and published three volumes) which focus on music by female composers: two editions due to be published feature the music of French composer Mel-Bonis. There will also be a new Prep Book added to my most popular series, Play it again: PIANO (Schott).

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