Q&A: Jeffrey Sharkey

I was lucky enough to grow up with a grand piano in my house. I remember being about four, sitting underneath it and tapping on the sounding board and then trying out the keys. From a young age, I loved how you could build these pillars of harmony on the intervals. I started playing the piano soon after that, first with my mother and then with a local teacher and I started composing around the same time.

At the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), one of the most joyous things was when we worked with Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University to celebrate Shakespeare's 400th anniversary. We wanted to do something unique so we took themes from A Midsummer Night's Dream and gave them to four composers. They wrote 15-minute orchestral pieces that were performed by the BBC Scottish and RCS symphony orchestras. We gave the same prompts to groups of actors, including our first cohort of D/deaf and BSL-user actors. Together, they produced an original work that translated what Shakespeare meant to the modern era. It was broadcast live by BBC Arts and became Scotland's contribution to the BBC Shakespeare celebration. An amazing student-led collaboration across the arts that I don't think could have been achieved elsewhere.