Richard Alan Searle studied composition with John Casken at the University of Durham, with Gary Carpenter at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently with others at a variety of short courses at Dartington International Summer School and elsewhere. In parallel, he’s played electric bass, sang, and written songs in a sequence of wilfully-uncommercial bands. Following a music theatre course led by Stephen Langridge, he took a detour into acting, then went on a creative hiatus in the early years of the century. Recent work includes an instrumental EP The Soft Release, and a solo violin piece for Fenella Humphreys’s Paganini variations project.