Thomas Baynes

Thomas Baynes is a British composer whose work spans contemporary, film, and mixed media music. His practice explores the meeting point of chamber music aesthetics and advanced sound technologies, combining contemporary performance with environmental recordings to create immersive and distinctive soundworlds. Recognised for his “authentic, elegant, and multifaceted” style, he develops music that engages both live and mediated contexts.

Recent highlights include music for the critically acclaimed play The Anatomy of Pain (2025, Edinburgh), the museum installation Austen 250: Beyond the Bonnets (2025, Winchester), short film What We Leave Behind (2024, UK), the immersive planetarium experience Solar (2024), the 3D sound performance Trains (2023, Tallinn), and the exhibition Our Windrush Story (2023, Basingstoke).

Alongside this work, Thomas composes for film and television, with credits including the BBC One series Silent Witness and album releases with Universal and APM libraries. His early career included assisting on Clint Mansell’s orchestral sessions for Ghost in the Shell at Air Lyndhurst Studios, an experience that set the foundation for later collaborations in the screen industries. He is also director of Chalkstream Productions, which develops music for screen, live performance, and installation.

Thomas holds a BMus (First Class Honours) and MMus (Distinction) from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was awarded the composition prize. He is currently a doctoral candidate with a UKRI-rated project entitled Music, museums, and curated sounds: immersive audio as a compositional practice, supervised by Nina Whiteman and Tom Parkinson. In 2025, he was appointed Lecturer in Music and Screen Media at Royal Holloway.