Conductor

Matthew Andrews is a graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he chaired the Contemporary Music Society and studied composition (Dr Robert Saxton), piano (Susan Alexander Max) and conducting technique (Alan Hazeldine).  He received further tuition with Simon Bainbridge, Hans Werner Henze and conductors Christopher Adey and Peter Stark.

In demand as an orchestral trainer, Matt is a visiting conductor to the Guildhall School of Music (Junior Dept.), Wells Cathedral School Symphony Orchestra and Essex Young People’s Orchestra.  He directs many courses and workshops, most recently with Norfolk County
Youth Orchestra. 

His début with Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra conducting Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony 
led to Matt’s immediate appointment as Principal Conductor, a post he also holds with both the Sudbury and Southend Symphony Orchestras.  He is also a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St Thomas and has been de facto Artistic Director of the McKinsey Music Festival at the AlpineUniversity in Kitzbühel since it’s inception eleven years ago.

Matt is sought after for his realisations of modern music and leading complex musical projects, including the première of Neil Yates’s Surroundings for antiphonal Big Band (Manchester Jazz Festival), the War Requiem for the Britten Centenary and will perform Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2016.

He has also conducted the Northern Sinfonia, Amadeus Orchestra, Essex Youth Orchestra, North London Chorus (Artistic Director 2000-02) and Opera Lab, and taught orchestral conducting technique at the Guildhall School of Music. 

Matt was assistant to composer Geoffrey Burgon, recording with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the BAFTA award-winning soundtrack Longitude with the Philharmonia Orchestra.