Simon Bainbridge had his first major break with Spirogyra, written in 1970 while he was still a student. This work displays a passion for intricate and sensuous textures that remain the hallmark of Bainbridge’s style today. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, he studied with Schuller at Tanglewood; his fondness for American culture is occasionally betrayed in works such as Concerto in Moto Perpetuo (1983), which contains echoes of American minimalism, and the be-bop inspired For Miles (1994). In the 1990s his work took on a new expressive dimension such as in Ad Ora Incerta (1994) which earned him the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 1997.