Andrew Robert McBirnie
Andrew studied music at the University of Bristol (BA with first class honours, 1992) followed by postgraduate study in composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London (MMus 1995, PhD 1997, both awarded by the University of London). He also holds a Licentiate Diploma in Compositional Techniques from Trinity College London. At Bristol he studied composition with Adrian Beaumont, while at the RAM his teachers included Michael Finnissy, Melanie Daiken and, most importantly and influentially, Justin Connolly. He also studied at Tanglewood in 1995 with Henri Dutilleux and George Perle, and at Dartington in 1998 with Peter Sculthorpe. He was a composer finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1993.
Andrew has worked in the fields of opera, orchestral, instrumental, choral, vocal and educational music. His music has been performed widely in Britain, Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and the Asia Pacific region, by artists and ensembles including the London Sinfonietta / Martyn Brabbins, the BBC Singers / Simon Joly, the BBC Philharmonic / Martyn Brabbins, the RAM Symphony Orchestra / Elgar Howarth, the Bennelong Ensemble, Harlequin, and Onyx Brass. His music has been broadcast several times on BBC radio and television.
In recent years, the Rarescale group, led by Carla Rees, has been active in promoting his work for quarter-tone alto flute and piano, The Moon by Night (2001) and the recent companion piece for quarter-tone C flute and piano, The Sun By Day (2007), including performances in London, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Manchester and New York. A new piece for solo oboe, Prayer (2004/5), was premièred by Julian West at the Purcell Room, London, in April 2005, at a concert given by the Continuum Ensemble celebrating the chamber music of Henri Dutilleux, and in the presence of Dutilleux, followed by a second performance in Cambridge.
Ritornel (2000; rev. 2001), for septet, was awarded 'Honourable Mention' in the 2005 Salvatore Martirano Award, and was performed by the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in November 2005. The Sonatina for Brass (1995) was performed by the Faculty Brass Quintet of l'Université Laval in Quebec City in November 2005, as part of the 2005 National Conference of the College Music Society. Three Motets on Scottish Metrical Psalms and Paraphrases for solo oboe, choir and orchestra (2006) was premièred by the Norwich Music Group, conducted by Philip Aldred, in Norwich, UK, in June 2007. Andrew's most recent completed composition is Four American Lyrics (2009), a cycle of four songs for baritone and piano.
Three pieces have been recorded on CD: the Sonatina for Brass (1996) for brass quintet, on IMCD 058; Variation for Joanne Johnson (1997) for organ, on FAND 102; and City (1999) for ensemble, on WVR 002. The Trio I for clarinet, cello and piano (1988) is published by Breitkopf & Härtel, and The Moon by Night for alto flute and piano (2001) is published by Tetractys Publications.
