Andrew Smith
performance history
Hailed by critics for his "virtuoso playing" The Evening Telegraph, UK, British violinist Andrew Smith has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Europe, America and China.
At the age of 23 he was appointed concertmaster of the Orquestra da Norte, Portugal and in the same year he made his London Debut at the Royal Festival Hall's Purcell Room. He has since appeared at the British Embassy in Paris, The Royal Festival Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Edinburgh International Festival, Chicago's Symphony Hall, Detroit's Orchestra Hall, Le Salle Gaveau, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. As a guest artist he closed the 2004 Dame Myra Hess concerts series and has performed for the American String Teachers Association, the Music Teacher National Association, the American Liszt Society, The SouthEast Composers Conference, the Jiangsu Performing Arts Association, China and at concert halls and universities throughout the US.
Critics hailed his release of Beethoven's complete violin sonatas as possessing "a style that shows the way some of the finest artists perform Beethoven in the 21st Century" and the interpretation was declared to "rival any number of famous performers in this repertoire." His release of Mozart's complete works for violin and keyboard was recorded in live for WSHU's National Public Radio. He has given broadcast performances on BBC radio and ITV television in England, on Chicago's WFMT public radio and WTTW public television in America and on public television in Portugal, Italy and China. He appears on the ASV, MSR Classics, Sony Classical, Silva Classics, PNova and VUCA labels.
As a guest concert master Andrew has worked with orchestras in the UK and US, including the Illinois Philharmonic, the Kalamazoo Symphony, the Sergio Franchi Gala Orchestra and the Bach Institute. He has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Gunther Schuller, John Corigliano, Vaclav Neumann, Sir Colin Davis and Helmuth Rilling performing everything from period interpretations to contemporary music..
A champion of contemporary literature, Andrew has performed for Sir Peter Maxwell Davis, John Corigliano, David McBride, James Sellars, Peter Seabourne, Jacob TV, Kenji Bunch, David Shol, Paul Brust, Robert Carl, George Benjamin, Hans Werner Henze and Bruce Mahin among others, premiering numerous works. In addition to working with composers from the main stream of classical music, Andrew collaborates with commercial music composers from around the globe to record soundtracks for commercial media. As Director of the internet's leading online recording service, he can be heard on soundtracks for TV and Film, for Pop, Rock and Jazz and even on leading Gaming platforms such as Xbox.
Andrew completed graduate, post-graduate and doctoral study in the UK and US at the Royal Academy of Music and Hartt School. Among his teachers are the legendary Amadeus Quartet, the Grammy award winning Emerson String Quartet, Erich Gruenberg, Emanuel Hurwitz, Haroutune Bedelian and Ida Kavafian.