He spent a number of years as Hans Werner Henze's assistant in Italy on a Leverhulme scholarship, where he received his first commissions while immersed in the European avant-garde.
The mid-1990s saw a renewed focus on lyrical and dramatic works for the concert hall, notably Mirror of Perfection and Voices of Exile, both subjects of television documentaries.
2011 saw the premiere of Not In Our Time, a 55-minute choral and orchestral work commissioned to mark the Centenary of the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and for performance on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, conducted by Gavin Carr.
The work combines the traditional sounds of the orchestra with recordings of gibbons, humpback whales, Pacific tree frogs, mountain gorillas, beavers and the musician wren.
The piece was premiered on the 12 July 2014 at the Cheltenham Festival with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Martyn Brabbins, then given at the Aberystwyth MusicFest and Birmingham Town Hall by the LSSO.