WHEN Radiohead completed an Australian tour in November, their final shows for the year, its guitarist/sound manipulator Jonny Greenwood did not go home to Britain. Instead, he and his young family stayed in Sydney while Greenwood went back indoors, this time with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Greenwood, as well as being one of the creative forces in Radiohead, is a fast-rising composer of pieces for orchestra, chamber group and film, and was, in effect, a composer in residence with the ACO for several weeks. In that time, the orchestra and composer workshopped an as yet unnamed Greenwood piece commissioned by the ACO's artistic director, Richard Tognetti.

Mutual appreciation … Jonny Greenwood, left, with the Australian Chamber Orchestra's Richard Tognetti. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Why Greenwood, who the more snobbish might describe as ''merely'' a rock musician? Why not? After all, the talent is there in someone who was composer in residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2004-05 and has composed the score for films such as Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and There Will Be Blood, as well as Norwegian Wood and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

''I think the amazing thing about Jonny is he might be a world first [because of] this incredible acumen that he has for being able to write for an orchestra coming from the background of being in a band,'' Tognetti said. ''This is almost a coming-of-age. Since jazz in 1901, there have been a lot of people trying to cross over and write so-called serious music and Jonny comes with all the technical know-how, which is very refreshing.''