Andrew West

Biography

Andrew West has developed partnerships with many of the country's leading singers and instrumentalists, and performs worldwide as song accompanist, chamber musician and soloist.

His duo partners include Emma Bell, Emily Beynon, James Gilchrist, Susan Gritton, Emma Johnson, Robert Murray, Hilary Summers and Roderick Williams. He appears regularly with the tenor Mark Padmore. They gave the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s song-cycle, Songs from the Same Earth, at the Aldeburgh Festival, and opened the 2017 recital series at the Library of Congress in Washington DC with a performance of Schubert's Schwanengesang.

Andrew has worked for over 20 years with flautist Emily Beynon, visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Their concert diary has taken them from the BBC Chamber Music Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, to regular appearances throughout the rest of Europe.

They recorded the complete works for flute and piano by the French composers Les Six (Hyperion) and are now midway through a five-CD project of 20th-century masterworks.

Further recordings include Lieder with Emma Bell and Robert Murray, and six CDs of mainly English music for SOMM Records, with singers including James Gilchrist, Susan Gritton and Roderick Williams.

Andrew was one of the artistic directors of the Nuremberg International Chamber Music Festival, which promoted a wide range of British music, from Purcell to Adès. He has given recitals with violinist Sarah Chang and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, and has twice been invited as guest artist to the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.

After winning second prize at the Geneva International Piano Competition he made solo tours of South Africa, South America and the United States, and has appeared as concerto soloist with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of St John's Smith Square.

He is Chairman and Music Director of the Kirckman Concert Society, which for over 50 years has auditioned exceptional young musicians and offered them debut recitals at major London venues.

He received the inaugural Gerald Moore Award for accompanists, and has also served on the jury of the Kathleen Ferrier Competition.

Andrew has an MA (Hons) from Clare College, Cambridge, where he read English before studying under Christopher Elton and John Streets at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is now a Fellow. He teaches regularly at the Music Faculty of the University of Cambridge.