Andrew Smith (b. 1970) grew up outside Liverpool, England, and in 1984 moved with his family to a mountain village in central Norway. His musical training began at an early age (both of his parents were music teachers). Theoretical skills were encouraged from the start and Andrew wrote his first compositions at the age of six. Three years of singing daily services in the Chapel Choir of Birkenhead School provided him with a solid foundation in traditions of Anglican sacred music.

Andrew continued to compose and play the organ throughout his teens, formal music studies beginning in earnest in 1990 at the University of Oslo. In 1991 he became organist and choirmaster of St Edmund’s Church in Oslo, a post which he has held for nearly 20 years. Although he has always felt that composing is his true musical vocation, Andrew did not seriously begin to consider a career as a composer until around the year 2000 when he wrote a 3-part setting of Ave Maria for the acclaimed Norwegian vocal group Trio Mediæval. The piece went on to be a great success, heralding a fruitful collaboration with the Trio which has to date resulted in several more compositions for them, two of which were recorded for the Trio’s second disc Soir, dit-elle (ECM New Series 1869), as well as numerous performances in Scandinavia, Europe and the USA. Works commissioned by Trio Mediaeval include Laudes Creaturarum, for the Trio and the Hilliard Ensemble (performed at the Bergen International Festival, 2007), and Bruma (Mid-winter) for improvising trumpet and three female voices, performed by Arve Henriksen and Trio Mediæval at the winter chamber music festival in Røros in 2008.

Through Trio Mediæval Andrew came into contact with the male vocal quartet New York Polyphony who commissioned, with their musical adviser Malcolm Bruno, two works for their début CD I sing the birth (AV 2141). The critical acclaim with which this release was met encouraged the group to commission a further four pieces for their follow-up disc Tudor City, due to be released in 2010.  Another project initiated by Malcolm Bruno, Mater Dei, combines Smith’s music with Rainer Maria Rilke’s cycle of poems The Life of Mary. Three different versions of the work have been performed to date, by the Girl Choristers of Washington National Cathedral, New York Polyphony, and The Norwegian Girls’ Choir with Trio Mediæval.

Andrew’s works, most of which are written for voices in various combinations, have received numerous performances from choirs and other ensembles in Norway, several of whom have commissioned works from him. Publishers of his music include Oxford University Press, and Norsk Musikforlag and Musikk-Husets Forlag in Norway.

Stylistically Andrew Smith’s music is a product of, among much else, the Anglican choral tradition, with composers such as Tallis, Byrd, Herbert Howells, and of more recent renown, James MacMillan, Tarik O’Regan and Gabriel Jackson, as important sources of inspiration. The influence of Gregorian chant is very much in evidence in many of Andrew’s compositions, both in the form of melodic shaping and in the guise of a more general aesthetic ideal. More recently, Norwegian folk music, which has a strong and living tradition, has provided additional inspiration.

Andrew Smith is a member of the male vocal ensemble Consortium Vocale Oslo, specializing in Gregorian chant.  Since completing studies in Music and English at the University of Oslo he has worked for the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival and as organist and choirmaster at the English church in Oslo. He is currently working as a composer, translator, and choral music consultant for the Norwegian Choir Association. Andrew is married and lives in Oslo, Norway.

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Andrew Smith © 2006