ABOUT
Credits
I am a composer, director and producer whose work has been performed nationally and internationally. From 1996 to 2015, I was the Artistic Director of Nitro/Black Theatre Co-op in England, developing and producing new musical-theatre from a black British perspective. During this time I maintained my freelance portfolio, working as a composer for a number of major theatre companies in England. In 2012, I was awarded an MBE for services to Musical Theatre.
In 2013 I moved with my family to Australia, working as a freelance director and composer. Six years on, I am living back in London, but studying for a PhD in Sydney, whilst continuing to work there for much of the year.
2024
Vishwamitri Villas, Theatre Production, Vadodara, Gujarat, India (Composer: Page to Stage, KLS & Associates, Akshar Trust)
2023
Rotters’ Opera Kent mini-tour (Musical Director)
2022
Meal One National tour (Composer: 509 Arts, Hull Truck Theatre)
Juxta, Nexus Festival (Co-Producer: Bankstown Arts Centre)
Juxta, Bankstown Biennale (Co-Producer: Bankstown Arts Centre)
2021
Juxta Launch, Bankstown Arts Centre, Sydney (Co-Producer)
Meal One performances, (Composer: 509 Arts, Mind The Gap, Bradford)
Vishwamitri Villas – Film July/Aug (Composer: Page to Stage/KLS & Associates)
Caribbean Convicts – (Composer: ABC radio, Australia)
2020
Black Drop Effect (Director: Sydney Festival/ Blacktown Arts Centre)
Legacy & Hope, a digital online concert, Pegasus Opera, (Composer/Arranger/M.D.)
2019
The Orchestra (Composer: Teatro Latino, Omnibus London)
2018
Crawl Me Blood (Composer: Aphids, Hobart, Tasmania)
Lonely Spirits Variety Hour…and a half (Director: Bankstown Arts Centre)
Symphony Under the Stars (Producer: pre-concert: Western Sydney Young Stars)
Prizefighter (composer/sound designer: Melbourne Festival, Australian regional tour)
Serpents Teeth (Composer: Kings X Theatre)
2017
Crawl Me Blood (Composer: Aphids, Melbourne)
Prizefighter (Composer/Sound Designer: Belvoir/Sydney Festival)
Lonely Spirits Variety Hour…and a half (Director: Bankstown Arts Centre)
2016
Spirit of Things (Director: Performance Space/Liveworks Festival)
The Prophet: Remix 2(Director: BYDS)
Night Sky (Director: Bankstown Arts Centre)
Spirit of Things (Director: Yirramboi Festival, Melbourne)
2015
Leyli & Majnun (Director: Blacktown Arts Centre)
Prizefighter (Composer/Sound Designer: La Boite/Brisbane Festival)
2014
Here (Composer: Glen Street Theatre, Sydney)
Between Us (Composer: Australian Theatre for Young People)
The Prophet: Remix (Director: BYDS/Nitro-Sydney)
2013
The Arrival (Composer: Tamasha/Circus Space)
Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Composer: National Theatre)
Rainbirds & Drumbeats (Director: Nottingham Playhouse)
2012
Mass Carib (Trinidad & Tobago High Commission’s 50th anniversary of Independence)
Concrete & Steel (Director: Kompany Malakhi/Nitro)
2011
Desert Boy (Director/Composer/Lyricist: Nitro)
Mass Carib (Composer: Benefit for earthquake-stricken Haiti – one-year-on; Kings Place, London)
Inkle & Yarico (Composer: New Wolsey Theatre)
2010
The House of Bilquis Bibi (Composer: Tamasha)
Mass Carib (Composer: Benefit for earthquake-stricken Haiti; Hackney Empire)
2009
Wuthering Heights (Lyricist/Co-Composer: Tamasha).
Up Against The Wall (Co-Writer: Nitro/Octagon Theatre)
Mixed Up North (Composer: Out of Joint)
2008
Musical Futures (Producer; festival of new musical-theatre, Greenwich Theatre)
The Wedding Dance (Writer/Co-Director: NITRO remount national tour)
Convicts’ Opera (Arranger/Composer: Sydney Theatre Co./Out of Joint)
2007
Mass Carib (London Cultural Olympiad Launch; 200 Anniversary of the Abolishment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade - Greenwich & Docklands Festival)
African Cargo (Director: Nitro/Greenwich Theatre)
An Evening of Soul Food (Director: Nitro/Greenwich Theatre)
The Wedding Dance (Writer/Co-Director: NITRO national tour)
Life After Scandal (Musical Director: Hampstead Theatre)
2006
Small Island (Composer: BBC R4 series)
Mass Carib (London Mayor’s Festival Trafalgar Square)
The Evocation of Papa Mas’ (Composer/Lyricist: Told by an Idiot/NITRO)
A Fine Balance (Composer: Tamasha/Hampstead Theatre)
O Go My Man (Composer: Out of Joint/Royal Court)
Overwhelming (Composer: National Theatre/Out of Joint)
2005
Lysistrata (Composer: BBC World Service)
Talking to Terrorists (Composer: Out of Joint)
Talking to Terrorists (Composer: BBC R4))
Macbeth (Composer: Out of Joint world tour)
High Heel Parrotfish (Musical Director: TRSE/Talawa/Nitro)
2004
Muse of Fusion (Composer: BBC R4)
The Protégé (Composer: BBC R4)
Jekyll & Hyde (Composer/Lyricist: Music Theatre Group Amsterdam, tour of Holland)
Slamdunk (Writer/Co-Director: NITRO/Sheffield Theatres)
Macbeth (Composer: Out of Joint national tour)
Revivial! (Producer; opera festival with the Royal Opera House
2003
Strictly Dandia (Additional music; Tamasha/Edinburgh Festival)
Darker Face of the Earth (Composer: BBC World Service)
NITRO at the Opera (Producer; opera festival with the Royal Opera House)
2002
Ryman & the Sheik (Composer: Tamasha)
NITROBeat (Producer; festival of new music-theatre, London Jazz Festival/Southbank Centre, London)
2001
Passports To The Promised Land (Writer/Composer/Lyricist: NITRO/Sheffield Theatres; national tour)
Ghostdancing (Composer: Tamasha/Lyric Hammersmith)
NITROBeat (Producer; festival of new music-theatre, London Jazz Festival/Southbank Centre, London and on tour)
2000
NITROBeat (Producer; festival of new music-theatre, Southbank Centre, London)
1999
Up Against The Wall (Co-Writer: Black Theatre Co-op/Warehouse Theatre Croydon - co-written with Paulette Randall)
1998
Tricksters Payback (Composer/Lyricist: Black Theatre Co-operative – book by Martin Glynn)
Sweet Rugged Mystery (Director: BBC R4)
Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings & a Funeral (Additional Lyrics: Tamasha/Lyric Hammersmith)
1997
The Orchestra (Composer: Southwark Playhouse/BBC R4)
Island Whispers: (Director: BBC R4)
Iced (Director: Back Theatre Co-op/Nottingham Playhouse)
1996
Visions Of Youth (Writer: Nubian Nights)
Jekyll & Hyde (Composer/Lyricist: Major Road National tour - book by Graham Devlin)
1995
Waiting for Godot (Composer: Lyric Hammersmith/Plymouth Theatre Royal)
Time & the Room (Composer: Gate Theatre)
Gulp Fiction (Musical/Director: Geestor Productions)
1994
Black Toby (Composer: Pegasus Theatre, Oxford)
Pinchy Kobi & the Seven Duppies (Composer/Co-lyricist: Stratford East/national tour)
The Bottle Imp (Composer: Major Road - book by GrahamDevlin)
Integration Octet (Composer: Derby Proms)
Pecong (Composer: Tricycle)
Three Sisters (Composer: Chichester Festival)
Rumpelstiltskin (Composer: Nottingham Playhouse)
Look Back in Anger (Composer: Plymouth Theatre Royal)
1993
Pinchy Kobi & the Seven Duppies (Composer/Co-lyricist: The Posse/Tricycle)
The Pan Beaters (Director: Greenwich Theatre)
1991
Jack and The Beanstalk (Composer/Lyricist: Albany Empire)
Macbeth (Composer: English Shakespeare Company/Africa tour)
1990
Blood Wedding (adaptation/Composer: BBC R4)
1989
Glory! (Writer/Composer/Lyricist: Temba/Derby Playhouse; national tour - winner 1988 LWT Plays On Stage);
Mass Carib (1989 national no1 tour)
Integration Octet (Composer: Royal Festival Hall)
Obeah (Composer: BBC R4)
1988
Mass Carib (Composer: Purcell Room, South Bank)
Romeo & Juliet (Composer: Albany Empire)
Integration Octet (Composer: commissioned by the Eastern Orchestral Board, for string quartet and steel pan quartet - Aldeburgh),
Miss Julie (Composer: dir. Dominic Cooke/Pan Optic)
1987
Mass Carib (Composer: Albany Empire)
This Joint is Jumping (Director: Swindon Dance Trust/Wyvern Theatre)
1986
King Lear (Composer: Albany Empire)
Flash Trash (Composer: Half Moon Theatre)
1985
Blues For Railton (Co-Writer/Composer/Lyricist: Albany Empire)
Pirate Princess (Composer: Temba)
Working Class Defeats and other Documentaries (Composer: Albany Empire)
Pre - 1985
Stand-up Comic;, supporting and touring with bands such as Steeleye Span, Hank Wangford Band, Bootleg Beatles, Billy Bragg.
Band leader of Felix and the Cats; GTO records, no releases.
Guitarist in various professional and semi-professional rock, jazz and function bands.
Qualifications & Awards
2018: Master of Music (MMus): Australian Institute of Music
2017: Graduate Diploma in composition: Australian Institute of Music
2017: Graduate Certificate in composition: Australian Institute of Music
2012: MBE, for services to Musical-Theatre
1988: LWT Plays on Stage Award; 1st prize, for “Glory!” (as a playwright)
Boards & Committiees
Music Theatre Network, Board of Trustees, Vice-Chair 2020 - present
Book, Music & Lyrics – Patron 2018 – present
Music Theatre Network – International Ambassador 2014 - present
Book, Music & Lyrics – Board of Trustees 2012-2018
Arts Africa Board of Trustees (Chair) 2009 – 2011
Arts Council of England Stabilisation Panel 2002 – 2006
Arts Council of England Black Regional Initiative in Theatre (BRIT) Panel member 2001 – 2005
Theatre Management Association Council member 2000 – 2006
Arts Council of England Touring Panel member 1999 – 2003
Major Road Board member 1999 – 2010
London Arts Board Theatre Advisory Board member 1998 – 2002
Ocean Music Trust member 1997 – 2003
Chair Music Projects and Recordings ACGB 1987 – 1991
Chair Music Commissions ACGB 1987 – 1991
Arts Council of Great Britain Music Panel member 1987 - 1991
Greenwich Theatre Board member 1994 - 2001
Greater London Arts Board Performing Arts Panel member 1985 - 1987
Greater London Arts Board Music Panel member 1983 - 1985
Conferences, Academic Presentations, Speeches & Panel Memberships
2023: Traversing the Unknown, Western Sydney University. “The Tradition of Unbelief”.
2023: Joint WSU-ANU Symposium. “Music to Die For”
2021: Music, Mortality & Ritual Symposium, Durham University. “Passing Notes”.
2021: Music & Music therapy, Western Sydney University. “Music to Die For”.
2020: Emerge, Western Sydney University. “Passing Notes” (Winner, Best Paper Postgraduate).
Arts Marketing Association; Norsk Kulturrad/British Council, Oslo
Black Arts Alliance; Equity Small-Scale Theatre conference (Chair)
ITC summer conference – The Glass Ceiling (Chair); Intercult – Trans//Fusion Symposium – Stockholm; Directors Guild of Great Britain/National Theatre of Northern Greece – Directing Changes – Thessaloniki
NITRO - The Next Passage – South Bank Centre; European Urban Theatre Festival – International Conference – Amsterdam; RSAMD; TMA conference; ISPA – Education As Catalyst (Chair).