Richard Attree had begun hammering on a piano and composing tunes at an early age and, following the acquisition of a BA in Philosophy and Creative Writing, studied electronic music at the Royal College of Music, during which time he completed a postgraduate degree in Composition and Software. Whilst pursuing these studies, he supported himself by playing keyboards for various jazz, rock and soul bands, and also composing music for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, the National Theatre and others.
Unlike existing composers at the Workshop, who had previous experience in Radio broadcasting, he was directly recruited by the department in 1987 as its most recent composer, and soon began producing a wide range of music for television and radio. The results included dramatic works such as Peace on Earth and The Dream, which were awarded the Sony award for ‘the most creative use of Radio’ in 1986 and 1989 respectively, followed by Unbroken Spirit and Mirooo, the latter entered by the BBC for the Italia Prize in 1993, and Over the Precipice, a Radio 3 drama of 1995.
For television, Richard contributed music to many programmes, including Short Circuit, Everyman, Video Diaries, Nature, National Geographic Explorer, Happy Families, Watt on Earth and The Demon Headmaster.
Following the closure of the Workshop, he created his own studio in the garage of his home, overlooking the sea on the south coast at Shoreham-by-Sea, the location of which also satisfied his passion for windsurfing. Having produced further music for films and television as a freelance composer, he retired from such work in 2007 and moved to Tenerife, where he now occupies himself as an energetic author.
Richard's site from his freelancing days is archived here.
To see his recently published books you can go to https://richardattree.com.