A Graduate of the London College of Music, he later studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome, Lennox Berkeley in London and Alexander Goehr at Southampton University. Yehudi Menuhin commissioned Francis’s DIVERTIMENTO FOR STRINGS, first performed at the Windsor Festival in 1971, which started his professional composing life. Among his Film & TV scores are the BBC series IRELAND, a TELEVISION HISTORY, SHACKLETON and JAMAICA INN, VENDETTA, and the Oscar nominated Swedish film EVIL, which won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for the Best Film Score in 2006. Francis has since written music for more than 80 films and TV programmes. His orchestral arranging work includes music by Vangelis, The Beatles, Chaplin, Livaneli and, with Barrie Guard, the film A ROOM WITH A VIEW. He composes production library music for KPM, The Scoring House and de Wolfe Music. Some of his concert works are published by Chester and Novello. His two operas, THE SELFISH GIANT and THE TIN KNIGHT have both been produced in the UK and in Germany. St George’s Chapel Choir released a CD of his choral music, BRIGHT PHOENIX in 2000. He has run seminar workshops in film music composition at the Academy for Performing Arts (Hong Kong), the Australian Film School (Sydney), the Norwegian Film School and FAS Industry Training (Dublin). He is a founder member of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and was a Composer Director of Performing Right Society from 2004 - 2007. In 2004 he visited Afghanistan to assess the needs of the Music Department in Kabul University, teaching and negotiating the loan of a piano from the British Embassy. In November 2014 he conducted the recordings of his 2 piano concertos with Martin Jones (piano) and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, shortly to be released on CD and online. He is a Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music in London, teaching post-graduate students film and TV composition techniques.
