'I’ve always enjoyed improvising and composing on the piano and violin since I was six but began writing music down when I was nine or ten and composing more seriously when I was eleven.

'A great boost and encouragement was winning a national competition, organised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, when I was 13. This was an Anthem for Remembrance, entitled Their Name Liveth For Evermore, which was played on BBC Radio 4.

'I came to Thomas Mills (Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham, Suffolk) because it has an enviable reputation for music under the Director of Music, Richard Hanley. There are loads of opportunities for composition and performance, working in school productions like West Side Story and Guys and Dolls, playing in a variety of ensembles and performing as a pianist in classical and jazz fields. Richard also encouraged me to take up the organ, with lessons from Malcolm Russell from the East Anglian Academy of Organists.  

'I have had enormous support from the school and at Richard’s suggestion I applied to a junior conservatoire and since 2006 have attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama every Saturday studying composition, jazz piano and conducting.

'I have been fortunate growing up in the musical environment that Benjamin Britten founded in this part of Suffolk, and I attend the Aldeburgh Young Musicians’ composition and performance courses based at Snape.  

'I was asked to write a piece for an ensemble of six players for a Performance Weekend in March with the support of composer Joseph Phibbs and conductor Richard Baker. The piece was called Moth Lamp.  

'I submitted it to the Guardian/BBC Proms Competition in May and to my surprise heard I had won when I was with the school orchestra tour to Prague.

'Moth Lamp was partly inspired by a quotation from Wildwood, A Journey through Trees by Roger Deakin: ‘Their names alone………………were a kind of poetry: the willow beauty, the dingy footman, the clouded silver, the flame shoulder, the smoky angle shades………’ 

‘The piece tries to represent these descriptions of moths, with the clarinet, trumpet and cymbals representing the lamp, and the moths through the other instruments. I see the piece as a doomed love affair between the lamp and the moths.

'I have written some orchestral and choral works but I especially like writing for smaller ensembles which bring out the quality of the individual instruments.

'Currently, I am working on a song cycle for mezzo and piano, a song for counter tenor and piano, a trio for three clarinets, a string quartet, and a wind quintet; as well as gathering ideas for my BBC commission.

'I am particularly aware of what Benjamin Britten said about composing: that it should be "of use to the living".

'So of course Benjamin Britten is an influence on my work, but many other composers are too, particularly twentieth century and contemporary figures such as Stravinsky, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Schoenberg, Peter Maxwell Davies, Thomas Adès, Oliver Knussen and Joseph Phibbs with whom I have worked at Aldeburgh. I also get inspiration from artists like Modigliani, Picasso, Kandinsky, Frida Kahlo, Hockney and Goldsworthy.

'I try to set something down on paper every day.'