He studied at Westminster School, then with John Lambert at the Royal College of Music, with Alexander Goehr at Cambridge University, privately with Tristan Murail in Paris, and on courses given by Olivier Messiaen, Per Nørgård and György Ligeti.
His first work written for the CBSO, Imagin'd Corners, premiered in 2002, was described by the Daily Telegraph as "seeth[ing] with variety of texture, dynamics and colour, from the atmospheric stillness of the opening to the high density and tumult as the piece reaches its final climax.
While appearing simpler in style than his instrumental music, these pieces are often related to the larger works, both technically (for example 'At the Fountain', the last of the Four American Choruses, has the same melodic and harmonic basis as a passage from Alhambra Fantasy) and aesthetically (the American poet Emily Dickinson is a recurring presence, as are themes of non-denominational spirituality or a secularised Christianity).
His third and final full orchestral work composed for Birmingham forces, Eden, was first heard at the 2005 Cheltenham International Music Festival, played by the CBSO under Martyn Brabbins, and is an exploration of the non-tempered tuning of the harmonic series.
This preoccupation with fusing tempered modality and non-tempered resonance is continued in his largest work to date, Heaven is Shy of Earth, an oratorio for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra lasting nearly 35 minutes, commissioned by the BBC for the 2006 Promenade Concerts, where it was premiered by singer Angelika Kirchschlager and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
A new version of that work, expanded through the addition of a new (third) movement, 'Gloria (with Bird)', was premiered at the Barbican Centre on 26 November 2010 with Susan Bickley as the soloist.
[7] Further choral-orchestral works came in the shape of Alleluia for chorus and orchestra, composed for the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall ("The London Philharmonic Choir, with nowhere to hide in such a revealing acoustic, maintained pitch admirably and delivered a virtuoso cadenza of animated susurration"[8]), and the shorter Harmony, commissioned as the opening work for the 2013 season of the BBC Proms.