Being able to work on this year’s ATYP production of April Aardvark has been one of my most memorable musical experiences this year. Having never written music for a theatre production before, I was dropped right into the ‘deep-end’ and it was quite daunting, but with the amazing assistance from my mentor Steve Francis I quickly became comfortable with the process and was excited to begin designing the musical language for the show.

Coming into April Aardvark from the fanfare competition, there was a massive difference in the music that I needed to create, and it was certainly a big learning curve.

April Aardvark had a very ‘urban’ character and I had to write a lot of trap and synth beats, however as a composer in the 21^st century, I feel that it’s extremely important to diversify your vocabulary and so luckily making these hip-hop beats wasn’t too far out of my wheelhouse and I could successfully meet the vision that the director, Amy Hardingham had for the production. I’m sure that in previous years the music would have been a little more ‘orchestral’ because the composers coming into the program were from the fanfare competition, but I’m super pleased that I was able to deliver on my brief and continue to expand my vocabulary.

Overall, I’d say that the time I spent working with the team and Steve Francis was definitely the most valuable aspect of my experience with April Aardvark, and it’s most definitely a medium that I could see myself writing for more in the future.