- Andrew Powell
Andrew Powell - musical composer, arranger and performer - was born 18 April 1949 in
London ,England of Welsh parents.Early life
He began taking piano lessons at the age of four and later attended
Kings College School, Wimbledon by which time he was also learning the viola, violin and orchestral percussion. He was writing music by the age of eleven and went on to study composition withKarlheinz Stockhausen andGyörgy Ligeti at Darmstadt in Germany before taking a masters degree in music atKings College, Cambridge . While at Cambridge he joined an electronic music group, Intermodulation, withRoger Smalley ,Tim Souster and Robin Thompson, and joined the local progressive rock groupHenry Cow , formed by Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, in which he alternated between bass and drums.Musical career
After leaving Cambridge he performed as a soloist at
the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He later worked with several orchestras, including at Covent Garden and with theLondon Symphony Orchestra ,London Philharmonic Orchestra ,BBC Welsh Orchestra and theBBC Symphony Orchestra where he worked withPierre Boulez . He had also begun working as a session player, as well as founding the group "Come to the Edge" with Robin Thompson and Morris Pert, which performed regularly with the Japanese percussion virtuosoStomu Yamashta .Andrew's career as an arranger began at this time and his first commission was the debut album for
Cockney Rebel ; he also arranged their next two albums and worked with other artists includingLeo Sayer , John Miles ("Music"),Donovan ,Cliff Richard ("Miss You Nights"),Al Stewart ("The Year of the Cat", "Time Passages", "Russians and Americans" and "Between the Wars"),David Gilmour ,Chris Rea ,Mick Fleetwood ,The Hollies , and others.He worked on the first album by
The Alan Parsons Project ("Tales of Mystery and Imagination ") as arranger, conductor and composer, and subsequently on all but two of their albums and withAlan Parsons when the group broke up. He has performed live with both Parsons and Stewart. He also made an orchestral album fromThe Alan Parsons Project 's songs : "The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan Parsons Project" in1983 .Powell produced Kate Bush's
debut album "The Kick Inside " which included "Wuthering Heights"; he also produced with help from Kate her second album Lionheart.Other artists he has worked with include
Chris De Burgh ,Nick Heyward ,Michael Crawford ,Elaine Paige ,The Hollies and Kansas.He wrote the
soundtrack for the moviesLadyhawke andRocket Gibraltar and has been involved in many other movie and TV projects as well.He has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the world, including the
Philharmonia Orchestra , theLondon Symphony Orchestra , theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra , theHong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra , theLos Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , theSydney Symphony , theWellington Symphony Orchestra , theBayerische Rundfunk Orchestra and theMünchen Kammeroper - as well as theBlack Dyke Mills Band andGrimethorpe Colliery Band .Recent work
More recent work has included arranging and conducting Wouter
Van Belle 's work 'Wow & Flutter' as well as writing for brass bands including theGrimethorpe Colliery Band and the [http://www.brassbands.co.uk Parc & Dare Band] ; and the perhaps less accessible album "Stockhausen: Michael's Farewell, etc" with John Wallace.Of the latest compositions, 'Living Stones', received its world premier at St Davids Cathedral, Wales on 27 October 2007 and 'Glasiad y dydd dros Ben Dinas' at the City of London Festival on 19 March 2008.
He is artistic director of BluestoneArts, a social enterprise company that promotes music, words and visual arts in north Pembrokeshire, Wales.
External links
* [http://www.colonnesonore.net/cmslab/index.asp?id=406&sezione=articoli&sottosezione=interviste&operazione=view] Interview: Ladyhawke
* [http://www.woutervanbelle.com/] Van Belle: Wow & Flutter
* [http://www.colf.org/event-details.cfm?e=464] City of London Festival: Glasiad y dydd dros Ben Dinas
* [http://www.cc-cw.org/andrew_powell_english.htm] Composers of Wales - Andrew Powell
* [http://www.bluestonearts.org.uk/] BluestoneArts
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