Born 15 July, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

Educated at Barnsley and District Holgate Grammar School

University of Birmingham, B.Mus., M.A., studies Composition with John Joubert and Peter Dickinson

Conducts first recognised orchestral composition Improvisations on a Theme of Piet Mondrian (unpublished), with University of Birmingham Chamber Orchestra

Polish Government Scholarship to study in Warsaw, September 1971 – December 1972

Regular classes at the Academy of Music with Andrzej Dobrowolski and consultations with Witold Lutosławski

Lecturer in Music, University of Birmingham, to December 1979

'Jadu' (unpublished) selected by SPNM

Kagura London premiere

first BBC broadcast Music for Cello and Piano (unpublished) BBC Young Composers’ Forum

‘Transition and Transformation in the Music of Witold Lutosławski’, Contact, Autumn 1975

Tableaux des Trois Ages for orchestra

Amarantos for nine players, Ia Orana, Gauguin for soprano and piano

Composition Tutor on course for young composers, Britten Pears School, Snape

Guest Lecturer, Britten Pears School, on the music of Witold Lutosławski, in the presence of the composer (and again in 1981)

Research Fellow in Musical Composition, Huddersfield Polytechnic

Featured Composer, Bath International Festival

Firewhirl for soprano and small ensemble

Lecturer in Music, University of Durham

String Quartet No. 1

Masque for oboe and small orchestra

Featured Composer, Musica Nova, Glasgow

Orion over Farne for orchestra

Piper’s Linn for Northumbrian Pipes

Gives the Ingolf Dahl Memorial Lecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, to mark the opening of the Polish Music Reference Center, on the music of Witold Lutosławski, in the presence of the composer.

Vaganza for large ensemble

BBC Proms performances of Orion over Farne and To Fields We Do Not Know (premiere)

Salamandra for two pianos

Visiting Composer, University of Southern California, Santa Barbara

Erin for double bass and small orchestra

Featured Composer, Almeida Festival, London Featured Composer, International New Music Week, Southampton

Golem chamber opera in two acts

Maharal Dreaming for orchestra

Golem wins The First Britten Prize for Musical Composition

American premiere of Golem , Opera Omaha

Awarded D.Mus. by University of Durham

Piano Quartet

Composer in Association, Northern Sinfonia

CD recording of Golem wins Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Recording

Cello Concerto

UK tour of Golem with Arts Council Contemporary Music Network Tour

Rockefeller Foundation Award to work at the Study Center, Bellagio, Italy

Still Mine for baritone and orchestra

Sharp Thorne for vocal ensemble

Tableaux des Trois Ages performed by BBC Philharmonic and Yan Pascal Tortelier: begins long association with BBC Philharmonic

Professor of Music, The University of Manchester

Still Mine wins Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize for Musical Composition

Darting the Skiff for string orchestra

German premiere of Golem , Theater Dortmund

String Quartet No. 2

Infanta Marina for cor anglais and small ensemble

Violin Concerto for violin and orchestra

Conducts Northern Sinfonia in premiere recordings of Dartking the Skiff , Maharal Dreaming, and Vaganza (Collins Classics, re-released on NMC in 2003)

Sortilège for orchestra

Distant Variations for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra

Awarded FRNCM (Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music)

Invited Speaker at Lutosławski Symposium, Chopin Institute, University of Warsaw

Artistic Advisor, ‘Breaking Chains’ Festival of Lutosławski’s music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London Chairman of BBC Young Composers’ Competition, Manchester

Après un silence for violin and piano/ ensemble

Golem presented at Aspen Festival

Piano Trio

God's Liar, an opera after Tolstoy

To the lovers' well for vocal ensemble

Berlin premiere of Golem, Neue Opernbuehne Berlin

‘The visionary and the dramatic in the music of Witold Lutosławski’ – chapter in Lutosławski Studies (ed. Zbigniew Skowron, OUP)

Guest Composer, St Petersburg, conducts Firewhirl and Infanta Marina in the Maly Zal, Philharmonic Hall

Conducts Cello Concerto with Munich Chamber Orchestra and Heinrich Schiff

Blue Medusa for bassoon and piano

Jury Member of Sinfonia Baltica International Composer’s Competition, Riga, Latvia

Symphony (Broken Consort)

Austrian premiere of God's Liar , Neue Oper Wien in the KlangBogen Festival, Vienna

Featured composer, Park Lane Young Artists Series, Purcell Room, London

Festival of Casken’s music (‘Casken Resonances’) at RNCM, Manchester

Rest-Ringing for string quartet and orchestra

Jury Member of Witold Lutosławski Composers’ Competition, Warsaw

French premiere of Golem , Opéra de Rennes/Angers Nantes Opéra

Farness (Three Poems of Carol Ann Duffy) for soprano, viola and chamber orchestra

Chansons de Verlaine for soprano and piano

Jury Member of Luxembourg International Composers’ Competition

Jury Member of Aberdeen Music Prize

Concerto for Orchestra

Shadowed Pieces premiered in a day of concerts at The University of Manchester to mark retirement as Professor of Music Emeritus Professor of Music, The University of Manchester

The Dream of the Rood for vocal and chamber ensembles

Amethyst Deceiver for oboe and piano

Deadly Pleasures for narrator and ensemble

Sacrificium for solo organ

Inevitable Rifts for string quintet

Invited speaker at Polish Music Since 1945 Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University

Public interview with Krzystof Penderecki

Composer Director, Lake District Summer Music School for Composers, Sedbergh, with Orlando Consort

Jury Member of International Composers’ Competition, Stresa, Italy

Featured Composer, The International Organ Festival at St Alban’s, Sacrificium is the test piece for the Quarter-Finalists

Winner of the 2009 British Composer Awards (Vocal Category) for The Dream of the Rood

Becomes Chairman and Artistic Director of Alwinton Church Summer Concerts, Upper Coquetdale, Northumberland

Forms the Coquetdale Chamber Choir

Series of interviews directed and filmed by Barrie Gavin

Awarded degree of Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa) by University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Awarded degree of Doctor of Music (honoris causa) by University of Birmingham

The Knight's Stone for choir and flute

Lecture for Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for mixed choir and organ

That Subtle Knot - double concerto for violin, viola and orchestra