Biography

Born in Salford, Lancashire on 10th March 1948. Attended Dulwich Hamlet Primary School and Mary Datchelor Girls’ Grammar School in London. Robert Hitchens Trust Exhibition (from the Clothworkers’ Company) to New Hall, University of Cambridge. BA Hons.Cantab in Moral Sciences and Music 1971 (studied with Roger Smalley, Robin Holloway and Patrick Gowers). Married Richard T.Phillips in 1971. Postgraduate study of composition and Chinese music (with Prof. Earl Kim and Rulan C. Pien) in Boston USA. Postgraduate study of composition (with Alan Ridout and David Willcocks) in Cambridge. Daughter Tessa born in 1973. MA Hons Cantab. 1974. Private study of Japanese music, particularly Noh drama. Emigrated to New Zealand in 1975. Private study of Maori chant. Wrote music (1978) for two Japanese dramas staged (under her direction) during the Third New Zealand Asian Studies Conference in 1979. Took New Zealand citizenship in 1983. Divorced and smashed up in a car crash in 1990. Has written music throughout her life – songs, operas, symphonic works and works for solo instruments – mostly for friends. Plays oboe, cor anglais and recorder and has played with a variety of amateur and semi-professional groups in England, the United States and New Zealand. Has sung contralto in a variety of choirs in England and New Zealand and currently sings lieder in the Auckland Lieder Group of which she is President. She also performs poetry and has made several broadcasts of her poetry; she has published 26 books of poetry.

Selected Works

• Publications (2)
• Works (161)
• Awards (1)