MY STORY
A Life Through Music
Early Years
Graham was born in London and comes from a musical family. His father was an opera singer and his mother a pianist. He started having piano lessons at seven and had composed some piano pieces while still at primary school. His first orchestral piece was written and performed at secondary school. In those days each part had to be written out by hand. Indeed, the amount of work involved gave him the idea of calling the piece Symphoniechen, ‘Little Symphony’. The piece lasted just over 3 minutes!
Music & Sport
Graham started studying the clarinet at 13 and was lucky to have benefitted from a lively music scene. Music and football were his passions, and as well as playing for the local Youth Orchestra, he played football for Spurs Youth! Sadly, a knee injury ended his sporting ambitions and he had to hang up his boots and focus on music. Graham attended the Royal College of Music where he studied the clarinet with John McCaw and bass clarinet with Steven Trier. London was a great place to study and Graham was fortunate to have been able to play in many of the concert halls.
However…
Life at Sea
On graduating, Graham joined the Royal Navy and served as an Officer on a short career Commission. During this period he saw a lot of the world, travelling to the West Indies, US, Hong Kong, the Mediterranean and the Gulf. After 5 years Graham transferred to the Naval Reserves, serving a further 18 years and reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. During these years, Graham’s passion for music flourished as he combined serving with performing and teaching, as well as starting a family and passing on his passion for music to his children.
Balance
Music has always been an extremely important part of Graham’s life and he has always believed in trying to maintain a balance of performing and teaching. Graham has played in various freelance orchestras. He has also given solo recitals and performed throughout the UK with the Jupiter Ensemble. As an impresario, Graham is passionate about giving living composers opportunities to have their works performed. He is also keen to enable students to attend concerts, and to meet both the composers and performers. Indeed this was the rationale behind a successful bid for Lottery funding where Graham was involved in numerous UK and World premieres whilst also providing free tickets to GCSE and A Level music students.
Life’s Twists And Turns
Soloist
Graham has performed concertos by Mozart, Weber and Finzi. He gave the first public performance of Robin Holloway’s Clarinet Concerto, performing it in Peterborough, Cambridge and on a tour of Hungary. In 2004 he performed the Nielsen Concerto in Cambridge.
Illness and Recovery
In 2009 Graham had a wake up call! He became ill with Guillain Barré Syndrome, a very rare and serious condition that affects the nerves. It mainly affects the feet, hands and limbs, causing problems such as numbness, weakness and pain. For a time Graham was paralysed, unable to walk, and suffered from Bell’s Palsy not ideal for a wind player! Fortunately, with the support of his family and friends, he recovered but with a renewed enthusiasm for life and living. That feeling of ‘but I haven’t done all the things I want to do yet!’ jolted him into action.
Politics
One of the main reasons for joining the Navy was to make a difference and see the World. Graham believes passionately that music can be a great way of breaking down the communication barriers so often found in language. This desire to make a difference inspired Graham to stand in the local elections. In 2011, he won a seat on Peterborough City Council. Between 2013-2017 Graham was appointed Cabinet Advisor for Culture, and was responsible for overseeing the Culture Strategy for the City. This gave him the ideal opportunity to encourage and champion creative artists and performers.
A Musical Vision
Composer
Politics can be all consuming and as a way of stimulating his creative musical side, Graham decided to start writing daily pieces of music. On 1st January 2013 he tentatively started to post pieces on Soundcloud. The challenge was to see if he could post a daily piece for a year. But, over time, it became something that was much more engrossing. Initially Spurred on by comments, advice and support from musicians all over the world, Graham discovered the world of music production and composition. The only limits are your imagination and your knowledge. It soon became apparent that there was a lot more to midi sampling and mockup creation than he first thought. Manuals had to be studied!
The other constraint was time! The pieces had to be written, mixed, mastered and posted by 0700! As you can imagine, this wasn’t particularly popular with his family (he didn’t have headphones) but they continued to encourage and support.
Master’s Degree
As the online comments continued, suggestions started to be made that a piece would be good for placement or commercial synching. This wasn’t something Graham had considered but it spurred him on to investigate online courses. Graham enrolled on a Masters degree in Orchestration for Film, Games and Television with ThinkSpace at the University of Chichester.
Today
Graham has taught at Homerton College Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University and currently teaches Clarinet and Saxophone at Oundle
School.
Graham lives in Peterborough with his wife Ann and when not composing or talking politics, enjoys the football and a nice glass of red wine.
