Matthew Andrews
Matthew Andrews is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he studied composition (Dr Robert Saxton), piano, and conducting technique (Alan Hazeldine). He has received further tuition with Simon Bainbridge, Hans Werner Henze and conductors Christopher Adey and Peter Stark.
Matt has a rapidly growing reputation as an orchestral conductor and trainer. Since 2012 he has been a visiting conductor to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Junior Dept., Essex Young People’s Orchestra, and in 2014 will work with Wells Cathedral School Symphony Orchestra.
His début with Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010 conducting Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony led to his immediate appointment as Principal Conductor, a post he also holds with both the Sudbury and Southend Symphony Orchestras. Matt is Guest Conductor with the Academy of St Thomas, and de facto Artistic Director of the McKinsey Music Festival at the AlpineUniversity in Kitzbühel, since its inception ten years ago.
Matt is sought for his realisations of modern music and complex musical projects. These have included the premiere of Neil Yates’s Surroundings, a site-specific work for antiphonal Big Band (Manchester Jazz Festival 2010). He has also conducted the Northern Sinfonia, Amadeus Orchestra, Essex Youth Orchestra, North London Chorus (Artistic Director 2000-02), Opera Lab, and taught orchestral conducting technique at the Guildhall School of Music
He was assistant to composer Geoffrey Burgon, recording Merciless Beauty with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the BAFTA award-winning soundtrack of Longitude with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Matt is also an award-winning consultant in the creative industries. He has managed more than sixty projects in education, broadcasting and the performing arts, and in 2003 received an award from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. He has worked with the BBC, Danish Business Council, University of Liverpool, Creative Partnerships and Performing Arts Labs. Matt’s company Creative Imperative also manages international music festivals for client McKinsey & Company.