Born New Zealand. Studied at the Universities of Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht. Following a spell as a music administrator in Wales he returned to Scotland to hold composition fellowships at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He is now a freelance composer based in Edinburgh. His music is widely performed and broadcast - in Australia, New Zealand and the Far East as well as in Europe. In 2001 he received a Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award to create a work of music theatre, in collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, involving issues of exile and identity. In 2002 he received an honorary D.Mus from Victoria University of Wellington, and was awarded the inaugural Elgar Bursary. He is one of the artistic directors of ECAT.