Andrew Smith
artistic leadership
Andrew's multi-faceted career blends performance with a distinguished record of artistic leadership. At the age of 20 he became Artistic Director of the Rubicon Ensemble, a contemporary vocal chamber group with musicians from the London Symphony, Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony and English National Opera. He researched and directed themed concerts of new and neglected works for voice and chamber ensemble at major venues throughout London.
At the same time he was invited to become a director of the European Chamber Opera and later became artistic advisor to London Musici, collaborating with the dancers and choreographers of the Ballet Rambert, London's leading modern dance company. During this time his arrangements of opera and choral music where used by the BBC, the Heart of England Opera and the European Chamber Opera.
In 1996 Andrew became assistant to the Grammy winning Emerson String Quartet, running and attending the international string quartet program at the Hartt School, University of Hartford. In 2000 the University of Hartford and Bushnell Theater invited him to lead “The Copland Festival” - a multi-faceted arts festival celebrating the influence of Aaron Copland on American arts, with partners that included Connecticut Opera, Connecticut Ballet, the Hartford Symphony, the Bushnell Theater, the Hartford Stage Company, the Wadsworth Atheneum and Boosey & Hawkes.
In addition to the Copland Festival, Andrew has served as Executive and Artistic Director of the Stamford International Music Festival in the UK from 2004-2010 where he programmed over forty chamber music works each season. Collaborating with faculty from the US, Holland, Spain, the UK and Japan, he oversaw a festival that became one of the leading festival's of its kind in the UK attracting an international student body of young artists from the US, Europe and Asia.
Andrew is currently Executive Director of the Suzuki Music School of Westport and it's sister school the Suzuki Music School of Orange, one of the largest independent non-profit Suzuki schools of its kind in the US. He is vice-president and founder of the Suzuki Association of New England and President of the Fairfield County String Teachers Association and Founder and Director of the Connecticut Guitar Festival.
Andrew’s widely diverse interests as a performer, teacher and academic regularly come together in his roles as an artistic director. In addition to his work with the Stamford International Music Festival, the Copland Festival, the Rubicon Ensemble, the European Chamber Opera and London Musici he has run a variety of concert series: the “"Bach at the Brauer Museum"” music series at Valparaiso University, the Children’s "“Pillow Concert Series”" and “"Da Capo Visiting Artist Series"” at the Suzuki Music School of Westport. As an active session musician Andrew founded String Sessions Online, an online recording service for remote overdubbing, offering recorded strings for the commerical music industry. He has recorded for film, tv and gaming platforms on three continents.
As Assistant Professor at Valparaiso University, Andrew won two grants enabling him to complete research in the archives of the Conservatoire Royale de Musique and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. His doctoral thesis examined the influence of the Belgian Artist’s Collective “Les XX” on the new music scene of Paris during the post-impressionist revolution of the 1880s. At the heart of this revolution lay an interest in the pivotal playing of the Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaye and the political influence of Wagnerism on the symbolist aesthetic. Andrew has been frequent guest lecturer at the Hartt School, lecturing on the Franco-Belgian violin school and on Ysaye.
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