Hello, my name is George and I am a composer and published arranger with 10 years of experience. I have composed music for video-game, film and concert hall projects, and I completed my PhD in Music Composition in 2020 at the University of Hull. I estimate that I have produced music for over 50 projects, for various music disciplines (video-game, film and concert-hall).

Currently, I am working on a video-game project called Its Grim Up North (formerly Invasion of the Southerners), a string quartet composition (A Scene Teen Turns 30) and finalising four British Brass Band arrangements for publication (pending copyright).

In 2018, I was awarded first prize in 21st Century Classical Music’s Solo Piano Composition Competition, for my video-game composition Nocturne.

In 2017, I completed three scores for Hull Maritime Museums, City of Culture 2017 installation on the Bowhead Whale. Visited by over 100’000 people, I produced the score with the help of student volunteers, who performed, recorded and mixed the score. Producing the music, I composed and conducted the score in recording.

Recently, I have largely ceased pursuing composition commissions while I focus on Any Old Music, though if people come to me… its pretty hard to say “no”!

Awarded a full scholarship to study for a PhD in 2015, my composition portfolio and commentary focussed on creative constraint in music projects and how it emerges and influences those projects over time. In other words, how discussions and creative artefacts within a project not only impose stylistic constraints, but inherently shape the project by imposing those constraints. For example, if you received instruction and concept art that defines a video-game as being dark and scary, this will impact artistic decisions as a composer. The thesis was accepted in 2020 and can be found here.

In 2014, I completed a Master’s in Music Composition that focussed on composing for picture, combined with 20th-21st Century concert composition techniques. My independent study was on the distinction of form and structure in Luciano Berio’s Rendering and Elliott Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra. I also composed a Symphonic work based on Bach’s Goldberg Aria, and a smaller scale composition based on Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “New World”. (Despite getting very good marks for both, I think they were pretty green compositions!)

During my Master’s course, I was selected to participate in an ERASMUS programme called “Living Museums”. It involved 2-weeks of lectures and composition at the European University Cyprus, culminating in performances of participants work at The Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. 

It was also during this period (2013-5) that I collaborated with Barnaby Pictures directors and producers, Joe Cobb and Savvas Caranicola. Composing and producing music for their films GetAway (2013, Cobb), An Interview with Batman (2014, Cobb) and Corazon de Leon (2015, Caranicola), George’s scores featured in international film festivals such as Los Angeles All Sports Film Festival, Clare Island Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Viewster Online Film Festival and more. (This showreel includes snippets of the film work we did together.)

In 2013, I completed my Bachelors degree in Music. It was a focussed but rounded degree in Music, which included Music Analysis modules in Classical, Romantic, Modern and Post-Modern Music; Musicology electives in current academic discourses and perspectives; Performance modules in ensemble playing as a Trumpet/Cornet player; and Composition, Orchestration and Arranging modules where he completed several concert works and film scores.

As a student, my work featured in several student showcases including many now lost works such as Pivot Point (2011), Soliloquy No. 1 (2012), Piano Trio 0 (2013) and The Bowhead Film’s/The Icebreaker Cycle (2017).

Outside of music, I am an avid fan of Wigan Warriors RLFC having followed and attended games since being a young boy. More recently I have become a fan of Formula 1. However, having not developed a clear allegiance, I’d like to see either George Russell at Mercedes win a Championship. Or, for McLaren (or, perhaps more distantly, Williams) to do well as constructors. I enjoy reading and listening to lectures on various non-fiction topics. Especially topics that might help me professionally. For example, behavioural economics, marketing and copywriting are some topics that I have been reading/watching recently. I obviously also like music books too, and enjoy going to classical and film music concerts.