Biography

Ian Gilchrist is a musician and composer in Liverpool where he lives with his wife Lucy and their two teenage boys.

His passion for music emerged at the age of 13 when he started to learn the piano and over the years has added to this flute, guitar, alto and soprano saxophones, recorders, Celtic whistles, mandolin and Yamaha WX5 midi wind controller. (Though the soprano would be first choice for the desert island!)

He has always been interested in writing and recording music and started off with short drama soundtracks on a 4 track cassette recorder, progressing on through Roland 8 and 16 track Virtual Studios to his current Mac Pro based home studio. His musical background spans classical through folk to jazz and rock enabling him to play and write with familiarity in a variety of musical genres.

Ian now works with a professional level set up using Digital Performer and a number of virtual instruments including realistic sampled orchestral emulation software, with which he enjoys mixing different live instruments. For the last 25 years he has fought to pursue his musical interests alongside a medical career, with varying degrees of success! However he has now with great relief taken early retirement from medicine in the autumn of 2011 to pursue music on a full time basis.

He is currently studying the Open University course “Inside Music” October 2011 to strengthen foundations in music theory. Having found his way alone with instruments over the years he has recently had some saxophone lessons with Mike Hall, Jazz Coordinator at the RNCM. As his work schedule has allowed, he has enjoyed studying by distance learning through Think Space Online courses run by film composer Guy Michelmore. He is currently working through “Music for the Media” and “Digital Musician”, and intends also to study “Harmony” and “Cinematic Orchestration”. This is with a view to working towards fulfilling a long term dream to write music for media including film, dance and drama.

Ian’s album “Journey from Slavery” is available from this site Click here for more information

His involvement with the caring professions has also given him an interest in the healing potential of music and some aspects of music therapy, particularly in the areas of mental and emotional trauma.

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