[1] He completed his undergraduate studies at Merton College, Oxford, and his doctorate at the University of Southampton (awarded in 1993).
He is a past president and chair of the Society for Music Analysis editorial board.
[2][3][4][5][6] According to his university profile, he is a specialist in Beethoven "with interests in aesthetics and critical theory, cognitive metaphor, and music and affect.
"[3] He inaugurated the International Conferences on Music and Emotion series at Durham in 2009.
[2] He co-organized the International Conference on the Analysis of Popular Music (Liverpool, 2013).