DPJ trained as a concert pianist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in the early 1990s, specialising in the virtuosic piano works of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel. Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit remains a landmark inspiration in his music — first introduced to him by his piano teacher, Bernard King (who studied with pupils of both Debussy and Ravel at the Paris Conservatoire). As a postgraduate, DPJ won the prestigious Debussy Piano Prize and took part in masterclasses with internationally renowned pianists John Lill and Pascal Rogé.

His own works for solo piano include The Old Man of Storr (2010); the collection From a High Window (2022) — inspired by Raymond Chandler’s novel The High Window; and the forthcoming cycle The Dusk and the Dark, drawing on the spiritual writings of Thomas Merton.

The piano also features in many of his theatre and dance soundtracks.