PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS: 
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
Andrew Downes
British composer Andrew Downes was born in Handsworth (Birmingham) in 1950 and studied composition at St John's College, Cambridge and then with Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music in London.
From 1992 until 2005 he was Head of the School of Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, but then retired due to ill health.
He has been much-commissioned, and his music appears on at least seventeen CDs, and has been performed and broadcast all over the world.
Further information: www.andrewdownes.com
A selection of articles about Andrew Downes
Pleasingly Eclectic - Mike Wheeler listens to James Curnow, J S Bach, Andrew Downes, Simon Lesley, Randy Newman, Lennon and McCartney, and Irving Berlin from Curzon Brass
CD Spotlight. On Buoyant Form - Orchestral music by Andrew Downes, heard by Roderic Dunnett. '... varied, innovative, involving and absorbing.'
Ensemble. Cogent Achievements - Peter Maxwell Davies' tenth symphony and other British music, heard by Roderic Dunnett
Record Box. Unique Timbres - A recording by The Brahms Trio Prague, reviewed by George Balcombe