Originally from
Northern Ireland, Whiteside moved to
Glasgow after studying music at
Queen's University, Belfast. In 2012, he was awarded his masters in composition from the
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and since then has worked as a freelance composer. His work has been featured in Sound Festival, the Cottier Chamber Project,
Edinburgh Festival Fringe (as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase) and the NI Science Festival. His music has been performed by the
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra,
Scottish Opera Connect, Cappella Nova,
Red Note Ensemble,
Ensemble Offspring, the
United Strings of Europe and
Garth Knox BBC Radio Ulster,
Solo for Viola D’amore and Live Electronics, recorded by Emma Lloyd and featured on
Dichroic Light, was described as having the overall effect of ‘one of meditation – a Japanese stone garden whose raked ripples have been brought into sound’. The same year he was commissioned to collaborate with artist Dominika Mayovich on
When Two Worlds Collide, an interactive installation for R-Space Gallery and Sound Scotland, and he scored the documentary, ''Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia'' for
BBC 4 directed by Eleanor Yule and Bernd Porr's indie feature film,
Anna Unbound. Whiteside was commissioned in 2016 by Lorimer Productions to compose
Nobilis Humilis inspired by the hymn to
St Magnus,
"Nobilis, humilis" for Cappella Nova's Echoes and Traces tour. The same year he was commissioned by Cottier Chamber Project to compose a piece based on the work of
Lord Kelvin and
John Stewart Bell for Juice Vocal Ensemble,
Glasgow University Chapel Choir and
Davur Juul Magnussen trombone ensemble for performance in the
University of Glasgow Cloisters. The resulting piece was called
Always Ever Unknowable In 2017, Whiteside was commissioned by Scottish Opera to again collaborate with Helene Grøn for a short opera for Scottish Opera Connect called
Little Black Lies. He was also accepted onto the RTÉ NSO/CMC composer lab to write
Repercussive and commissioned by the Institute of Physics for the NI Science Festival to collaborate with Marisa Zanotti on writing
Entangled for string quartet, electronics and film based on the work of
John Stewart Bell for and premièred at the NI Science Festival 2018 by the Aurea Quartet. and was supported by
Creative Scotland to attended the Atelier for Young Festival and Cultural Managers in Shanghai run by the
European Festivals Association. While still a student he founded Edit-Point with fellow composer Timothy Cooper. Together, along with Nicholas Virgo and Louise Rossiter, they produced 16 concerts of electroacoustic music including concerts at Sound Scotland,
Belfast Festival at Queen's and
Glasgow City Halls. In 2016, Whiteside began
The Night With... putting contemporary classical music into informal venues. The Night With... became a
SCIO in 2018 with Whiteside as CEO & Artistic Director. As of December 2018 he has produced 17 concerts in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen as The Night With... Along with his concert work, in 2023 Whiteside self-published
The Guidebook to Self-Releasing Your Music to support composers and musicians through a self‑release process and share his experiences of releasing his own music and developing the record label of The Night With.... == Prizes and awards ==