BACKGROUND MUSIC
ANDREW M. WILSON
Andrew M. Wilson was born in 1960 in Bedfordshire. He started composing at the age of seven and was a Junior Exhibitioner at Trinity College of Music, London before proceeding to study Music at the Royal Holloway College of London University, where his teachers included Brian Dennis for composition and Martin Neary for organ.
He has taught music at a series of distinguished schools: Papplewick School Ascot, and the Royal Grammar School Worcester. Since 1992 he has been the Director of Music at Kelly College, Tavistock. He is the conductor of the Kelly Choral Society, the most prestigious choir of its kind in West Devon and in 2007 he was appointed Musical Director of the Plymouth based South West Chamber Choir. He is well known as an entertaining speaker on musical subjects throughout the South West. He has been the organist of several important churches, including St Matthew’s Luton, All Saints Worcester and Upton-upon-Severn.
It is as a composer, however, that Andrew has become most well known. His output has contributed to a wide range of genres. A series of large-scale choral and orchestral works include “Drake’s Drum” which was commissioned by the National Trust to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the death of Sir Francis Drake and has been performed at Buckland Abbey and St Andrew’s Plymouth (by the Plymouth University Choir and 10 Tors Orchestra).
Tavistock Town Council commissioned “The Faery Feast” and its memorable first performance formed part of the town’s millennium celebrations. This opulent score is a setting of a text by the seventeenth century Tavistock poet William Browne. His latest cantata was a commission for the Tavistock Festival, "Grendel's End" premiered by school and adult choirs, around 300 singers in total , in April 2007.
Andrew’s most recent orchestral score was a commission for Simon Ible’s distinguished Ten Tors Orchestra: the scintillating “Three Bridges Concerto” for two violins, cello and string orchestra, which has received several highly successful performances throughout the region. March 2007 saw the premiere of his Clarinet Concerto by the South West Sinfonietta conducted by Tim Boulton with soloist Peter Cigleris in the Guildhall, Plymouth.
He has not neglected the field of Chamber Music. His Clarinet Sonata, written for Ian Mitchell, has been taken into the repertoire of a number of notable players. Rachael Ager premiered the Oboe Sonata in 2001 and Peter Fisher and Peter Hewitt the 2nd Violin Sonata in 2006. The Sonatina for String Quartet was written for the world famous Dante Quartet and first performed, by them, at the 2004 Dante Summer Festival: it led to the commission to write “Singing Game” for the Dante Quartet to perform with the Launceston Choral Society in the 2006 festival. December 2004 saw the first London performance of the Wind Octet by Octanphonie at St. James’s Piccadilly. His Song of the Nuns of Chester was introduced at the King of Hearts Arts Centre, Norwich and the Assembly Rooms, Ludlow by the well known vocal ensemble Concerto delle Donne.
A recording of “The Green Man” has just been released on the disc “Composers of the South-West”.
Music for the church has always figured strongly in Andrew’s output and much of his choral and organ music was originally written for the Kelly College Chapel. His anthem "Sing to the Lord" was written specially for the Two Moors Festival Songs of Praise at Torrington in October 2006. Andrew Wilson’s music is published by Canticum and Phylloscopus.
