Cinema Suite was completed in 2006, commissioned by the Ida Carroll Trust in memory of the music scholar Peter Crossley-Holland, who had close connections with the Music Department at Bangor University, North Wales, where the composer has lectured in composition and orchestration since 1992.

The work is in five movements, the total duration being around 32 minutes. Though the third and fourth movements were played by Bangor University's Symphony Orchestra, and some material from the first movement was previously used in the composer's Three Miniature Portraits for clarinet choir (also published by Chichester Music Press) performed by the North Wales Clarinet Choir and broadcast on Radio Cymru in August 2005, Cinema Suite was given its first complete performance in 2007 by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Murphy, and is available on CD on the Dutton Epoch label CDLX 7190 British Light Music Premieres, Volume IV.

The five movements are all given titles, and can be performed as separate works, though material is integrated between the individual movements to produce a coherent whole. Suggestions Philip Lane, the producer of the CD, led to the final titles of the movements: Ogres and Giants, The Magic Potion, Dreamscape, The Clowns and Resolution, each title being self-explanatory but whose function is only to give a feel for the movement, rather than indicating a particular programme.

Cinema Suite uses a modest-sized orchestra, though harp and celesta are used in the first two movements, and an array of percussion instruments is shared between two players (plus a separate timpanist) giving a wide palette of orchestral timbre which is exploited from the full writing of Ogres and Giants, the delicate ballet-style writing of The Magic Potion, the dreamy landscape of Dreamscape, the almost vulgar sound of The Clowns and the long build-up of Resolution, driving up to a full-orchestra crash, followed immediately by a quiet tuba solo.

Please make sure you know what you're ordering! This is a study score only, and is not suitable for conducting from. If you want to perform this piece, please email for details of the conducting score and instrumental parts.