Terry Mann has had pieces performed at the Bath International Festival, the Huddersfield New Music Festival, the Spitalfields Festival three times (including the festival commission in 2003), the Hoxton New Music Days, the Almeida Opera Space, Rimini music festival (Italy), the Little Missenden Festival, the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada) and at the ISCM World Music Days in Japan, where his fanfaronade was the fanfare representing the UK.

In 2000 he was awarded the George Butterworth Award for Composition by the Society for the Promotion of New Music for his children's music theatre piece, In Comes I, and Panic attaca - a new interlude for Gamelan orchestra written for a concert of John Cage's prepared piano pieces performed by Joanna MacGregor.

His emergence as a composer was put on hold between 2001 and 2003 due to being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Following extensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment he received a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor in 2002 and thankfully remains in remission.

In 2004 he was awarded an Arts Council of England International Artists Fellowship to visit the Banff Centre in Canada for a three-month residency where he completed No Ordinary Piano Suite for Prepared Piano.

On his return he was awarded a full-time Arts and Humanities Research Board grant to complete his PhD studies in composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

In 2005 he came second in the first PRSF New Music Award, billed as "The Turner Prize for music" for his proposal for a large-scale installation piece using recordings of all the bells from the cathedrals of the UK. Despite just missing the Award, the piece was commissioned by four festivals in 2007 and successfully toured.

In January 2006 he was taken on by the British Music Information Centre's "New Voices", a publishing scheme for emerging UK talent.

His music has been described as "highly distinctive", "compelling and elegantly written", “haunting” and “beautiful”.