Fraser Trainer studied composition at Huddersfield University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a postgraduate student, where he won the 1992 Lutoslawski Prize.

He already has four London Sinfonietta commissions to his name and has firmly established himself as a composer keen to communicate with both performers and audiences through a vivid and direct musical language. Other ensembles to have performed his music include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Viva, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens Kamerata, The Scottish Ensemble, Psappha, Kokoro and London Brass.

Knots a twenty-five minute piece for solo violin and five players was commissioned and premiered by internationally acclaimed violinist Viktoria Mullova in July 2003. A recording of Knots and other works is available on a black box CD.

for the living, a BBC commission for amplified violin and orchestra was again written for Viktoria Mullova and first heard at the 2005 Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins. It was for this piece that Fraser received the runners-up prize for the BBC Radio 3 Award as part of the 2006 British Composer Awards.

Gadget, a concerto for Between The Notes and the Gürzenich Orchestra was given its premiere under the direction of Markus Stenz in a concert to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Köln Philharmonie in September 2006, and the London Mozart Players recently performed his latest orchestral piece, The Eye as part of the Cambridge Music Festival.

Fraser is a founder member of the group Between The Notes, in which he plays Piano and Electronic keyboards. He will be writing an improvised concerto for BTN and orchestra for performance in 2010.