Born in Scotland, I spent my early childhood in the Scottish Borders before moving to the Glasgow area. I started piano lessons at the age of 12 but also had a keen interest in all things computers having been gifted an Atari 800 microcomputer. As a child I excelled in both English and Mathematics.
Deciding on what to choose as a career was difficult but music eventually won and despite having started a law degree at Edinburgh, I began my DRSAMD course at the Royal Scottish Academy Of Music & Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland).
After a year in London finding my feet as a freelance musician, singing lessons with Ian Adam prompted a new direction and led to a post graduate year at the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama.
For the next 16 years I was lucky to have had a successful career primarily in theatre however a trip to Romania to celebrate my 40th birthday resulted in a serious illness, two years of recovery and a complete change in direction.
In 2017 I spent a wonderful three years as music director with Theatre Voices and although Covid put things on hold, my music and theatrical career was reborn.
After completing my studies at the RSAMD I based myself in London finding my way as a freelance musician; playing piano and keyboards for rehearsals, concerts and theatre including time as a Music Director at Mountview Academy. After completing my post grad in vocal studies at Guildhall all thanks to Ian Adam. This followed a fairly extensive career in Opera and Theatre taking me to New York, Prague, Vienna, Lucca in Italy and Brisbane Australia. Roles include Valjean in Les Miserables, Phantom in Phantom Of The Opera, Old Deuteronomy in Cats, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Canio in Pagliacci, Cavaradossi in Tosca.
Illness in 2008 took me away from theatre however taking on the role of Music Director to Theatre Voices in 2017 gave me the encouragement to get back to singing. After Covid I started taking on concert work and devised several one man shows that toured.
Both One Day More (a musical theatre compilation) and All About Sondheim (an intimate portrayal of the music of Stephen Sondheim) both take off around the UK in 2026.
My original studies at the RSAMD were in piano, conducting and composition; having studied with Lawrence Glover and Gustav Fenyo I also developed my conducting skills with John Mauceri. Unfortunately I had no dreams of being a concert pianist but was smitten with theatre. Having been played the original concept album of Jesus Christ Superstar when I was 17 I was hooked. Stories and anecdotes from John Mauceri prompted my decision to pursue a career primarily in theatre as a musician.
Even during my 16 years as a professional singer I still found time to keep my piano skills current playing for concerts and theatre including pit keyboards for Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard as well as an accompanist for various artists and musical director for numerous pantomimes.
I worked at number of theatre schools in London including Mountview Academy, coaching students and as music director on productions such as West Side Story, Blood Brothers and Godspell.
As a composer I've written extensively for theatre and radio including Bondagers, Can't Stand Up For Falling Down, Nicholas Nickleby, The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror.
2026 sees the start of rehearsals with Rhovan as music director with keyboards/vocals. Rhovan is a new Celtic ensemble featuring original songs and music; concerts are already booked in 2026 with an appearance at Celtic Connections and a Scottish tour.
After completing several months of work on new contemporary arrangements and orchestrations of Christmas songs and music and after a short try out run, The Christmas Chronicles will be launched as a full blown production in December 2026.
September 2026 marks my return to the piano with a short series of piano recitals centred around music from cinema: Piano At The Cinema featuring some of best film scores transcribed for piano including The Warsaw Concerto, Rhapsody In Blue, Adagio For Strings, Cavatina, Beauty And The Beast and much more.
A lifetime of passion for all things tech started with the gift of an Atari 800 microcomputer at the age of 13; basic by the standards of today however it was an incredibly powerful machine back in the day. Games, code and game creation became even more interesting and I started learning Basic from typing in game code from magazines, soon moving onto machine code and Fortran.
Despite a fantastic grounding in code and the possibility of a career it was music that took me away from computers. During my time at the RSAMD Glasgow I took a local business course which led to training with the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust. After winning the regional final of the Shell UK Livewire Award I was invited to join the PSYBT as a mentor and business advisor; a relationship that lasted for nearly 15 years.
Moving on into the mid nineties and the wide use of Atari ST computers in music, finally PC’s started to emerge and with the launch if Windows 95, PC’s became the standard for music production in the industry. This rekindled a passion for computers and I started delving into the world of music technology through recording, midi, sampling and sound design.
It wasn’t long before computers were handling the role of big production studios but other emerging technologies caught my eye; specifically the web.
It wasn’t the coding side, it was the mass appeal and the ability to reach people and collaborate worldwide. I became obsessed with web technologies starting with HTML and CSS before moving onto Perl, PHP, Python, Linux, and delving deeper into WordPress as well as branding, content and SEO through my work with the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust.
My first business was a small web design business but as technologies changed and the needs of business changed, so did my own perspective; I worked on a number of big projects including game projects, music and sound design for games. Eventually I moved away from big teams to focus on developing my own coding skills until finally Big Blue Scribble was born.
With an aptitude for English from an early age and a maternal Grandmother who encouraged my music and literature education I was always passionate about literature and books. My writing career started early writing short articles about the Arts and about Technology which were often picked up for publication. In London I often wrote reviews for small publications and magazines and later the web.
My first book The Bird Man (Tide Pool Publishing) was a work a progress over 15 years about the singular relationship I had with my maternal Grandfather after the premature death of my Grandmother. For over 20 years we were exceptionally close and travelled extensively together; Scotland, New York, British Columbia and extensively across Europe. The book recounts the adventures we had together and the many observations about my Grandfather, his life, his unique view of the world and dealing with getting older.
Finding the time to write during Covid I started two novels of fiction; Vampire Cove, a dark and raw tale of the last coven of Vampires to exist on earth; and Church, a unique tale of an unknow branch of MI6 that deals with the occult. Both books now accepted by Tide Pool Publishing.
I've just completed a guide that has been nearly 15 years in the making; Hit The Right Note: Crafting Your Sustainable Career in the Music Industry. After moving away from the industry in 2008, I've found my way back creating a successful and entirely independent career creating, producing and performing my own work. As the industry changes creating an independent career is much more satisfying way of building and having the career you want whilst remaining in control.
