Christian was born into a brass banding family in Northamptonshire (1989) and began playing the cornet at an early age.  In 2000 he joined Raunds Temperance Band on third cornet, making his debut at the Fourth Section National Finals, at the Royal Albert Hall.  In just seven years the band was competing in the Championship Section with Christian on solo cornet.  In 2009 he was appointed principal cornet – a position he held until leaving the band to study in the Netherlands in 2013.  Since then Christian has become a member of Brass Band Schoonhoven (on both cornet and tenor horn), winning two national titles and representing his adopted country at the European Brass Band Championships.

Christian began to take an interest in composition during his mid-teens, teaching himself by studying any brass band and orchestral scores he could get his hands on.  Encouraged by feedback of an early work from Elgar Howarth, this interest grew and grew.  Soon he began writing pieces for local bands and entering composition competitions.  To date, Christian has been a finalist I the Ohio Brass Arts Festival, John Golland Award, Slide Factory, EBBC, and Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan Composer Competitions.  When deciding where to study, Christian opted for the Conservatoire of the Hague (having met the head of composition, Martijn Padding, during the Slide Factory event).  In 2013 he began his studies under Cornelis de Bondt and Martijn.  Having studied for just over a year, and realising that writing for brass bands was his passion, Christian decided to part ways with the Conservatoire and instead receive private tuition from Dutch brass and wind band composer Rob Goorhuis.

Christian’s first ‘Dutch’ work, “Fanfare in Orange”, was written for the Cory Band for their visit to the country, and performed by them in Eindhoven and Leeuwarden.  Since then, he has worked on several projects with Brass Band Schoonhoven, including contributing to their Brass in Concert programme and composing his “Underground Concerto” for the band’s solo euphonium player, Robbert Vos.  This work was recently recorded as part of his upcoming solo CD.