James Hayward
James Hayward was born in 1956 in Preston. He studied composition privately with Fabian Watkinson, a pupil of Olivier Messiaen in London. A committed lifelong learner with interests in psychology and information technology, after a career in information systems he recently completed a PhD in Management at Lancaster University and is a Research Fellow at the Univarsity of Edinburgh.
Having learned the rudiments of music outside of school, he took extra-mural pianoforte lessons in the Music Department of Reading University then began composing in earnest in his early twenties. As career and family became high priorities, the development of computerised sequencing and scoring of music was a boon which enabled him carry on composing music.
He moved back from London/SE in 1998 and now lives in Arnside with a fine view of the Lake District fells. His musical idiom is one which he has confessed as sometimes progressive but also late romantic in style. He has now produced a number of works for small ensembles some which derive from his lifelong appreciation of the Lake District and North Country.
