I started singing when I was two years old and never really stopped. Although I studied the piano and the cello singing was always, and has remained, my passion. I was a shy girl, unconfident and rather intimidated by my birth family; both my father and grandfather were well-known in the music world and have entries in Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Dad took us to classical music concerts - Messiaen, Stravinsky, Janacek - and Mum played us her LP collection - The Beatles, Ella Fitzgerald, The Swingle Singers.

Sadly, my mother became very unwell when my sister and I were small and so we were placed in the care of the Social Services. I grew up with foster families and was fortunate that the man who fostered me from the age of 5 spotted my love of singing. He encouraged my sister and me to join our local parish church choir and I sang Sunday services there until I went to University. Little did I know at the time that the experience of singing in that choir as a child was to have a profound influence on my composing style.

I was unhappy at my comprehensive school and found it difficult to make friends so I immersed myself in my studies. Against the advice of my teachers, I decided to apply to read Music at Oxford University and amazed everyone (including myself) when I got in. A whole new world suddenly opened up to me and I threw myself into forming life-long friendships, singing in choirs and playing in orchestras as well as forming a jazz duo with a fellow student called Alexander L’Estrange (mainly so that we could get a free pass into the Summer Balls!).

When I graduated in 1993 there weren’t the excellent young artist programmes that are on offer now and I had no idea how to get into the music industry. I did a post-graduate year training to be a secondary school music teacher and worked in a school for the following three years, teaching GCSE and A level music. But I longed to be singing. In a moment of recklessness I decided to leave the teaching profession and try my luck at auditioning. Six months later I was a member of the world-famous Swingle Singers. What luck! Nearly everything I’ve done since in my career has been as a result of that decision.

Composing had never been part of my plan but the universe had other ideas. My foster father asked me to compose a piece to be sung at his ordination; the RSCM published it and were eager to know if I’d written anything else. So I kept writing and the next thing you know you’re being name-checked on University Challenge! It was only when I began composing that I realised what an impact those early chorister years had had on me. Although I’d been singing with professional choirs, often performing very complex and challenging music, it was for the humble parish church choir that I felt compelled to write, the kind of choir I’d sung in as a child.

I’m often asked what my career highlights have been so far: recording a duet with Jarvis Cocker for the French Dispatch soundtrack was definitely one; conducting my A Season to Sing piece at Sydney Opera House was another experience that’ll be etched on my memory for ever. But, even in such moments, I never forget where it all began.