About me

I'm a musician, researcher, and producer. As a pianist, I specialise in improvisation and silent film accompaniment, working solo and with a variety of collaborators, including as a member of Frame Ensemble. I’m a house pianist at BFI Southbank and perform regularly at venues and festivals around the UK and internationally, including two series of performances in India, for the 50th International Film Festival of India in Goa and the International Film Festival of Kerala. I’m the founding Artistic Director of Northern Silents which produce a year-round programme of live-scored silent film in the North of England, and two annual festivals, Silents by the Sea at Morecambe Winter Gardens and Northern Silent Film Festival every October.

I studied piano with Barry Whitfield in Grimsby and Ryszard Bakst at Chetham's School of Music, and then drama and theatre studies at University of London. The combination of music and dramatic storytelling has run through my career ever since as I’ve moved between working in theatre, musical theatre, opera, orchestral music, arts festivals and film.

In early 2024 I completed my PhD research at University of Huddersfield Music Department, which focuses on silent film piano improvisation. I also research early film keyboard accompaniment practices and the history of silent film accompaniment. 

I have a particular interest in pedagogies of improvisation. As well as teaching the improvisation module at University of Huddersfield for three years, I regularly lead practical improvisation projects with young musicians, and masterclasses with improvisers at all levels, including Northern Silents’ programme of professional development for improvisers.

I began my professional career in the 1990s as a musical director and keyboard player on musicals in the West End of London and regional UK theatres. I played in the pit orchestra of the original productions of Les Miserables and Blood Brothers in the West End. Since then, I've mixed working as a musician with work in theatre and opera as a director and producer and as a leader of arts festivals. I joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an assistant director before going to the National Theatre as Associate Director on the award-winning revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!. I directed the UK premiere of Gershwin’s musical Of Thee I Sing, and spent time on the directing staff at Opera North, English National Opera and Royal Opera. I’ve also devised and staged music-theatre collaborations with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and BBC Radio 3.  I’ve produced mixed art form and classical music festivals across the UK, and led Queer Up North International Festival, Holmfirth Arts Festival, Festival of the North East and Classical Sheffield Festival, as well as every edition of Yorkshire Silent Film Festival and Northern Silent Film Festival.

I'm a Clore Fellow (sixth cohort, 2009), a member of the Royal Musical Association and Incorporated Society of Musicians.