I am a composer, writer and inventor of machines, some deliberately dysfunctional.

My musical ouptut includes opera, multisensory compositions for deaf and hearing performers, electronic works for installation and a number of Higgstruments which I’ve designed for the performance of certain compositions. This work has featured in concerts, festivals and museums around the world and received numerous awards, including grants from the Arts Council of Ireland, The Wellcome Trust (UK) and a MacDowell Fellowship (USA).

For over 15 years I’ve done extensive research into multisensory music with deaf participants, for which I completed a PhD at Trinity College Dublin in 2018, funded by the Irish Research Council.

Currently I’m working with the University of Liverpool and Music Generation Wexford on a Multisensory Music Education Programme (MMEP) for both deaf and hearing students of music.

I’m in the process of releasing a semi-autobiographical novel about a machine designed not to work, Kahoogaphone. I invented the Kahoogaphone in 1997, when I composed a guerrilla opera by the same name. The opera comprises 15 songs, which I am currently re-recording and releasing alongside the novel. At the same time, I continue my efforts to build a functioning Kahoogaphone (i.e., one that doesn’t function), a great challenge due to its ingeniously inherent mechanical paradox. These noble pursuits of dysfunction can be followed on social media.

I’m represented and published by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland.