Theatre Portfolio

I am a composer, sound designer, arranger and orchestrator with a logistically exhilarating portfolio career. My artistic core has always been music for theatre, from undergraduate essays about incidental scores to my recent full-time role in the music department of London’s National Theatre. My hope is that my return from the UK after a decade of working in large scale musical and theatrical institutions will bring new opportunities to compose and create music.  

Music To Ignore is the neo-classical piano album I wrote, recorded and produced during a long, cold London lockdown. It reworks, reimagines and rediscovers a selection of my music for theatre with highlights including:

  • Bells – a resetting of a personal favourite but discarded musical idea from my music theatre work House of Worth, this track was featured on BBC Radio and BBC Sounds. 
  • Satiesque – originally written for an immersive theatre work directed by Laurence Rosier Staines
  • Roaming & Illyria – based on settings of songs from Twelfth Night which were performed live by the cast of the production directed by Patsy Rodenburg
  • Lethe – based on an incidental cue from a production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice directed by Pierce Wilcox
  • Hiraeth – a song salvaged from the Book Music Lyrics workshop and reimagined here for piano and archive birdsong

Alternate streaming/download link: https://lnkfi.re/musictoignore

Tether (2022)

Animation In Development – Written by Tobi Wilson and Brydie Lee-Kennedy

Tether – atmospheric and dark, setting up the sound-world for the show
Tether – A more energetic cue

Podcasts

Something With A Cow (2022) – Australian Theatre Discussion Podcast – University of Queensland, Dr Christopher Hay. Theme music, end music, and interstitials

Something With A Cow – Australian Theatre Discussion Podcast (2022)

Beef and Dairy Network Podcast (2016) – hit comedy podcast from Benjamin Partridge, syndicated by the BBC. My music underscores several episodes.

Eventide – Reverie – String Quartet
Four – viola quartet

Other Media Music

Short pieces used in non-theatrical projects

Foghorn Lullabies – Released as a single 2021
Driving Piano
“Whimsy Etcetera”

The House of Worth (2020)

A new musical workshopped during lockdown written with Rebecca Simmonds, based on the life of Anglo-french fashion designer Charles Worth. Act I was given a 2020-style ‘concert’ workshop under social distancing restrictions.

Theatre credits as composer/sound designer

  • The House of Worth (2020 workshop, in development) – book/lyrics by Rebecca Simmonds
  • Urza and the Song in the Dark (2018, touring NSW 2020, 2022) – Matriark Theatre. (Co-composed with Kathryn Parker)
  • Blind Date New Song Showcase (2015) – Iris Theatre
  • Twelfth Night (2013) – Silk St Theatre dir. Patsy Rodenberg
  • Giving Space (2013) – The Place, London, contemporary dance collaboration with choreographer Joseph Toonga
  • Hamlet (2012) – Zenith Theatre dir. Paul Eastway
  • A Czar is Born (2011) – Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, dir./written by Laurence Rosier Staines (music arrangement and direction)
  • The 39 Steps (2011) – Sydney Fringe Festival, dir. Pierce Wilcox
  • Eurydice – Sarah Ruhl (2009) – Verge Arts Festival dir. Pierce Wilcox

Selected Orchestral and Chamber Music

  • Side Hustle (2021) – for recorder sextet
  • Foghorn Lullabies (2021) – For piano, strings and foghorns
  • Music to Ignore (2020) – Works for Solo Piano
  • The Alarming Spread of Poetry (2019) – for Actor and pierrot ensemble on text by PG Wodehouse
  • Night Walk (2018) – for Narrator and Chamber Orchestra
  • Fishing Tune (2016) – Based on traditional Chinese tune, for China tours of The Halle, Britten Sinfonia and the Sydney Symphony
  • Eventide (2015) – Fantasia on Abide With Me for String Quartet and Electronics
  • Jumping the Groove (2014) – Concerto for Violin, strings and percussion, won APRA/AMCOZ Encouragement Award
  • Four (2011) – Viola quartet in three movements, won ANZVS composition competition

In addition to these selected concert works, I have had arrangements and orchestrations performed by The Hallé, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Australian National Academy of Music, Australian Youth Orchestra, Sydney Youth Orchestra, and London Musical Theatre orchestra.

National Theatre

My role in the National Theatre music department was a broad and flexible one, creatively supporting composers, sound designers and musical directors through rehearsal and tech. Projects worked on over 4 years in the music department include:

  • Hex (2021 & 2022) – Score preparation
  • Dick Whittington (2021): keyboard and drum programming, score preparation
  • Paradise (2020) – score preparation, studio recording supervision
  • Antony and Cleopatra (dir. Simon Godwin, comp. Michael Bruce) – instrument design and construction
  • Small Island (2019) – instrument
  • The Lehman Trilogy (2018 dir. Sam Mendes, comp. Nick Powell): additional keyboard programming and system design
  • Hadestown (2018) – orchestra management, instrument maintenance