Denis Smalley studied at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University in his native New Zealand, and later at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen, with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), and at the University of New York
His composition Pentes (1974) is regarded as one of the classics of electroacoustic music He describes his approach as "spectromorphological", featuring the development of sounds in time. A lecturer at the University of East Anglia, England, from 1976 to 1994, he has been professor of music at City University, London since 1994.
His music has been performed around the world and most of his major works appear on commercially released CDs.
