Toby Knowles (Sc 93-98) is a critically acclaimed composer best known for his work on hit TV shows, and with the London-based orchestral pop trio, Left with Pictures. Beginning his career in fringe theatre, writing and performing music at venues such as London's Hampstead theatre, Knowles now writes music for programmes broadcast on the BBC, Channel Four and Sky Arts. 

Under his guise as vocalist and musician in Left with Pictures, Toby released the album, Afterlife, receiving rave reviews in the Guardian, WORD Magazine, and many others, with 6Music's Lauren Laverne describing the album as "absolutely beautiful". 

We caught up with Toby to find out how turned his talent for 'making stuff up' into a career. 



Discovering my niche in music 
I started playing the piano when I was five years old, and the violin when I was eight, but to be honest, I progressed quite slowly on both instruments. Instead of mastering scales and sight-reading, most of my practice time was spent improvising and trying to work out songs and melodies by ear.

It was only when I started at Tonbridge that, with the encouragement of my music teachers, I realised that 'making stuff up' was actually a bona fide skill, and one that might help me through GCSE music - a subject that I hadn't considered taking before. Throughout GCSE/A Levels, I never became a confident performer of classical music, but luckily there were many other outlets available to me: the school big band, the funk/jazz band, my own compositions, and of course the remote portakabin known as the 'Clack Shack', where tomorrow's Indie bands could safely make a racket.

University and Teaching
At University I studied music, focusing on film music and composition, and then took the PGCE, working as a secondary school teacher for six years. Teaching was a roller coaster, full of extremes - some brilliant days followed by real life-sapping moments. Likewise the teaching I witnessed ranged from exceptional to abysmal (myself included) and it made me all the more grateful for my fantastic music education at Tonbridge, and for the resources that the department had.
 

Where I am now
Having spent several years playing in bands, and working as a sheet music editor, I now work as a composer, principally for comedy shows on television. Since leaving university, music has almost always been my livelihood, and it's also been responsible for practically all of the friendships that I've made in the past twenty years, including meeting my wife. I owe it a lot!