Julian Dawes' career seems to have centered around the theater, but that hasn't limited his compositional output to just music for the stage. His worklist contains an extensive amount of vocal music in addition to his theater works, plus concertos, chamber music, orchestral, and keyboard works. Dawes studied at London's Royal College of Music, then moved into teaching and accompanying for dramatic schools and groups in London and Birmingham. His incidental music for plays such as Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and his own musical, The Braddocks Time, has been performed not only throughout Great Britain, but also in Australia and Belgium. His concert music has been heard in Germany and Israel. Dawes draws on a number of 20th century musical influences to create music that is driven by its character. As Malcolm Miller states "...English influences are the pastoralism and extended tonality of Herbert Howells, the richness of Walton, the elegant delicacy of Berkeley and the jazzy impetus of Rodney Bennett; wider European influences include the caustic irony of Shostakovich and Kurt Weill and the rhythmic impetus of Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Yet Dawes welds from his influences an individual voice that is distinctive and refreshing, displaying assured craftsmanship and characterful invention. "