In 2014, Ben Tyson wrote a full orchestral score for two of my poems. This was one of the most magical things that has ever happened to me! Ben is a really talented composer, and captured the feelings of the poems beautifully – so that words and music worked together, rather than the music being a backing track. The tricky bit was for me to learn to perform with the orchestra; making sure that each phrase of the poem matched up with the right phrase in the music was a challenge – but one which was totally worth it.

After two months of rehearsal, I performed them with the Edinburgh Composers’ Orchestra, with Ben playing double bass, in November 2014. You can have a listen below: