Tommy was born in Maidstone in 1971 and almost immediately got interested in music and, especially, hitting things. He studied percussion, piano and composition through school and then entered the Royal Academy of Music as a first-study composer at 17, the youngest person ever to do so. His compositions have been performed many times, mostly thanks to his association with Kent Music School; he was a member of the Kent Youth Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra and wrote for all of them.
In 1992, Tommy won through to the final of the BBC's first Young Composer of the Year competition; he didn't win, but that year he was very busy writing arrangements for all-star galas in the West End, working as a copyist on films and shows and playing drums/percussion in a wide range of styles in studio sessions.
All that stopped (well, almost) when, in 1994, Tommy started presenting Radio 3's Music Machine, the show for young people that he helped invent. 5 years and over 700 shows later it came to an end, by which time Tommy was presenting other things on the network too, as well as on Radio 4. He's not quite sure how this all happened but he's enjoying it rather a lot. Presenting Morning on 3, Stage and Screen, various Performance on 3s, Morning Performances and airline programmes keeps Tommy busy, as does freelance television production, rugby, real ale and playing with the 1920s-style jazz band, The Sloane Square Syncopators.
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