[1] In 1952, he won a scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, where he studied piano and viola[citation needed] (1952–56).
Additional piano studies were with Edwin Fischer, as well as masterclasses with Alfred Brendel and Paul Badura-Skoda.
[1] During the 1960s he became increasingly interested in composition; and particularly with electronics after having heard Stockhausen's Kontakte,[1] an experience which he said "changed the direction of his musical life".
Between 1982 and 1985 he realised the electronic material for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus at IRCAM in Paris, to great acclaim.
In the words of fellow New-Zealander and electroacoustic composer Denis Smalley, Anderson “was cut off in his prime”.