Coward was homeschooled, and has an older sister, Imogen Coward, and brother, Taliésin Coward, who are also PhD graduates. Coward studied at the Julian Ashton Art School and at the University of New England, graduating with a first class honoursBachelor of Arts degree in 2013. He completed his PhD study in 2017, writing his dissertation on creating a new method for analyzing film design, which was subsequently used in the creation of the film . Since 2017, Coward has been a judge for the Sydney Indie Film Festival.
Early life and career
At the age of 14, Coward saw the need to promote good reading for young readers and asked his local bookstore if he could organize events on their premises. Between 2005-2008, Coward organized visits by popular Australian children's authors. He met the author and poet Libby Hathorn through these events, and later illustrated her book Vietnam Reflections which was produced as a presentation gift to the Australian War Memorial and won the 2010 Poetry Prize at the Inaugural Woollahra Library Word Festival.
''Camerata Academica of the Antipodes'' (2014—present)
The Camerata ensemble was founded by Coward and his siblings with musicologists and multi-instrumentalists in 2014, and the ensemble internationally established their "distinctly recognisable culture and ethos" of the 'performer as co-creator'. The ensemble regularly supports the Australian Children's Music Foundation. Coward performs piano, violin, and viola, and is a baritone bass.
Compositions
Coward first premiered selections from his music for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the Tate Liverpool's major exhibition Alice in Wonderland which celebrated the 150th anniversary of Carroll's book, and later premiered "Beautiful Soup" in Sydney, which scholar Timothy Harries described as "logical, as though it was 'always meant to exist'." Coward has written music for piano, strings, and voice, and performs his own piano works. His compositions have been positively received by Australian and international audiences, and regularly critiqued in the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies publication Criticks. Esther Lie described his work as "full of new invention," leading audiences "into a world full of colour." His compositional style has been frequently described as "Chopin-esque," "Neo-Romantic", and exhibiting "a love of nineteenth-century music." Coward frequently engages audiences' imaginations before performing, such as describing ballet sequences for '"Two Kings" suite and "Imaginary Pas De Deux".
Original works
"Beautiful Soup" - Piano & String Orchestra, later re-arranged with Vocal Ensemble
"Sans Souci" - Piano
"Melody" - Piano & String Orchestra
"Lament" - Piano
"Imaginary Pas de Deux" - Piano
"Trio" - 2 Violins & Piano
"Consolation" - Piano
"Nocturne" - Piano
"The Embrace" - Piano
Arrangements
Giuseppe Cenci. "La Mantovana" arranged for String Orchestra
Arthur Sullivan. "Glee" from The Mikado arranged for String Orchestra
