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Lynwood Music presents
Andrew Downes
English Composer
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BIOGRAPHY
Andrew Downes was born in Handsworth,
Birmingham, in 1950. He won a choral scholarship to St. John's College,
Cambridge (in 1969), where he gained an MA degree specializing in
composition; and in 1974 went on to study with Herbert Howells at the Royal
College of Music. Between 1990 and 2005, he was Head of the School of
Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire and was awarded
a Professorship in 1992. He now works as a freelance composer.
Andrew Downes' music has been performed throughout the world, in many leading
concert halls and cathedrals, and has been broadcast at home and abroad. His
commissions have included: The Marshes of Glynn, for the Royal Opening of the
Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham in 1986; an Overture for the 1986 Three
Choirs Festival; an Anthem for Shakespeare Sunday; Song Cycles for Tenor,
John Mitchinson and for Mezzo-Soprano, Sarah Walker, both for performance on
BBC Radio 3; works for 'Cantamus' Girls' Choir, and for the BBC Radio 4 Daily
Service; Centenary Firedances, for the City of Birmingham's Centenary
Festival of Fireworks and Music; Sonata for 8 Horns for the University of New
Mexico; Fanfare for Madam Speaker, for the Installation of the Rt Hon Betty
Boothroyd MP as Chancellor of the Open University; and many more.
In January 1989 Andrew Downes visited Israel to attend a performance of his
Sonata for Two Pianos by Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir in the Israel
Philharmonic Guest House. Eden and Tamir came to Birmingham in January 1990
to perform the work in a concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
In November 1993 Downes conducted the Crane Concert Choir in the University
of New York's Hosmer Hall in a performance of his St Luke Passion. In 1994 he
attended, at the Calcutta School of Music, a performance of his Sonata for
Violin & Piano by Calcutta born violinist, John Mayer; and he revisited
India in February 1996 for performances by 'Indo-Jazz Fusions' of his
composition, Mela Kamavardhani, in Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi.
New York Metropolitan Opera Soloist, Stephanie Blythe, performed Andrew's
Songs from Spoon River at the Tanglewood Festival in August 1994. A series of
recordings of Downes' works was broadcast on Central Peking Radio in 1994 and
the China Film Philharmonic Orchestra requested copies of several of his orchestral
works, while in Japan 'Cantamus Girls' Choir gave performances of Piano by
Andrew Downes during their 1994 concert tour.
In March 1995 Andrew was invited by the University of New Mexico to give
talks and to attend the performances of several of his works, and especially
his Sonata for 8 Horns, commissioned by the University Horn Octet. In October
and November 1995 he heard in Paris performances of his Sonata for Two Pianos
by the 'Duo Scaramouche', including a performance on Radio 'France Musique'.
He was interviewed on Italian Television in March 1996 before a broadcast
performance of his Sonata for Two Pianos by the 'Duo Scaramouche' from
Barletta.
In the Summer of 1996 he attended a performance of his Sonata for 8 Horns at
the International Horn Convention in Oregon and the first performance of his
Sonata for 8 Flutes at the National Flute Association's annual Convention in
New York. This latter work has since been performed at numerous venues
throughout the USA, Australia and Japan and also in Caracas by the National
Flute Orchestra of Venezuela, as well as at a special Flute Day in Birmingham
devoted to it, and twice at the Stratford International Flute Festival. In
April 2004, the work was given its Mexican premiere by the Mexican Flute Ensemble
conducted by Jenny Brooks in Mexico City.
Andrew Downes' Concert Overture, Towards a New Age, commissioned for the
150th anniversary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was premiered
in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on 28th January 1997 by the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Constantine. Downes was awarded a
commemorative gold medal by the Institution in recognition of his outstanding
contribution to their celebrations.
In January 1998 Andrew made a trip to Vienna to hear his Sonata for 4 Horns
performed by the Vienna Horn Society; and to Prague for a performance, in the
Suk Hall of the 'Rudolfinum', of his Sonata for 8 Horns by the Horns of the
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The Czech Philharmonic Horns played this Sonata
again in Prague's Lichtenstein Palace in August 1998 and in the Suk Hall in
December 2001; and they have recorded the work for Czech Radio and for CD.
The CD, entitled Czech Philharmonic Horns (Classic Print label), was awarded
5 stars and voted CD of the month September 2000 on Musicweb. It has been
broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in November 2000 and November 2001 and on Dutch
Radio in 2003 and 2004.
The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge performed Andrew's anthem, The Souls
of the Righteous in Trinity College Chapel in May 1999. In July 1999 members
of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra joined guitarists Simon Dinnegan
and Fred T. Baker to record Andrew's Concerto for Guitar, Bass Guitar and
Strings for CD which was released in January 2001 on the Classic Print Label.
In November 1999 Andrew attended the first performance of his Sonata for
Flute and Piano given by Carol Kniebusch Noe with Vicki Berneking in the
American Cathedral in Paris. In 2000 he visited Virginia and Boston USA for
concerts entirely devoted to his flute music by the James Madison University
Flute Choir and the Massachusetts High School Flute Choir. Both of these
Flute choirs subsequently made CDs of Andrew's flute music.
For the start of the new millennium, commissions included : an Oratorio, New
Dawn, performed by soloists, choir and full symphony orchestra (including
guitar ensemble) at Birmingham Conservatoire on 18th February 2000
(subsequent performances include one in 2001 in Kings Chapel, Cambridge,
conducted by Stephen Cleobury); Song of the Eagle for the James Madison
University Flute Choir of Virginia USA, directed by Carol Kniebusch Noe, to
celebrate their 25th anniversary and which they recorded in January 2000 for
their CD devoted to Andrew's flute music; a special Evensong Service,
performed at Royal Holloway (University of London) by the Chapel Choir
conducted by Lionel Pike on St Cecilia's Day and recorded for CD in January
2001 by the choir; and Sonata for 8 Pianists, premiered in the Adrian Boult
Hall, Birmingham, on Wednesday 6th December 2000 by pianists from France,
Italy, and Britain. The Czech Philharmonic Brass Sextet gave the first
performance of Andrew's Sonata for Brass Sextet in the Dvorak Hall, Prague,
in February 2001. Other recent commissions include Concerto for 4 Horns and
Orchestra for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, first performed in the Dvorak
Hall, Prague, on 28th February and 1st March 2002, and recorded by Czech
Radio for broadcast during Summer 2003; Piano Sonata no 2, commissioned by
Duncan Honeybourne and first performed by him at the National Gallery, Dublin
in March 2003, and Five Dramatic Pieces for 8 Wagner Tubas for the Czech
Philharmonic Horns, premiered at the Dvorak Hall, Prague on October 18th
2005, and now recorded commercially on the Czech Philharmonic ArteSmon label.
Recent projects have included Songs of Autumn and Songs of the Skies, (both
commissioned by Symphony Hall Birmingham, premiered in 2003 and 2005
respectively with 1200 children and players from the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra and the Central England Ensemble); Songs of Love for Paula
Downes and David Trippett, (world premiere at University Hall, Harvard
University Cambridge, Mass. USA on February 1st 2007); Sonata for Organ
(premiered by Robert Green at St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, Wales on
August 22nd 2007); the opera, Far from the Madding Crowd, premiered at the
Thomas Hardy Festival in July 2006; Mass for Unaccompanied Solo Voice,
premiered by soprano Paula Downes at the MIT Chapel, Boston, Massachusetts,
USA on March 6th 2008 and Sonata for Horn, Violin and Piano for the Brahms
Trio Prague (Monica Vrabcova, violin; Ondrej Vrabec, [principal Horn Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra] and Daniel Wiesner, piano), premiered at the Suk
Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague on February 5th 2008. A CD of this work has now been
released on the Czech Philharmonic Artesmon label. Additional recent projects
include a song cycle for bass-baritone Jonathan Pugsley and pianist Duncan
Honeybourne, premiered in November 2008; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra for
pianist Duncan Honeybourne and the Central England Ensemble, conducted by
Anthony Bradbury in Birmingham Town Hall on March 1 2009, and given again by
the same artists in Coventry Cathedral in June 2010; Sonata for Contrabass
Flute and Piano for Peter Sheridan, premiered in 2009 in Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia; Sonata for Clarinet and Piano for clarinettist Angus Merion and
Duncan Honeybourne, premiered in Salisbury, UK in January 2010 and Concerto
for Horn and Symphony Orchestra for Ondrej Vrabec (Principal Horn Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Central England Ensemble conducted by Anthony
Bradbury, premiered at Birmingham Town Hall on October 21st 2012.
Current projects include a commission from the Francis Brett Young
society to compose a work based on Young’s poem, The Ballad of St Kenelm, to
be premiered in 2015, a setting of ‘Jubilate’, commissioned by the Callington
Singers to celebrate their 30th anniversary to be premiered in
Cornwall in October 2013, and a cycle of songs based on the work of poet
Julie Boden.
Faber Music include Andrew Downes' motet O Vos
Omnes in their compilation entitled Thirty Choral Masterworks for Upper
Voices.
Andrew Downes is a Life Fellow of the RSA and of
the International Biographical Association, Honorary Fellow of Birmingham
Conservatoire, and President of the Central Composers' Alliance and Leading
Patron of the Midland Chamber Players.
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