Andrew Powell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Powell - musical composer, arranger and performer - was born April 18, 1949 in London, England of Welsh parents.
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 studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen at Darmstadt in Germany before taking a masters degree in music at Kings College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he joined an electronic music group, Intermodulation, with Roger Smalley, Tim Souster and Robin Thompson. He also joined, along with Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson, the progressive rock group Henry Cow.
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 the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Welsh Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra where he worked with Pierre 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 virtuoso Stomu Yamashta.
Andrew's career as an arranger began at this time and he worked with artists including Leo Sayer, John Miles, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Donovan and Al Stewart.
He was involved with The Alan Parsons Project on several albums as arranger and composer, and followed Alan Parsons when the group broke up. He also made an orchestral album from The Alan Parsons Project's songs : The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan Parsons Project in 1983.
Powell and David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) produced Kate Bush's stunning, memorable debut album The Kick Inside; 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 movies Ladyhawke and Rocket Gibralter and has been involved in a number of other movie projects as well.
He has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the world, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra and the München Kammeroper - as well as the the Black Dyke Mills Band and Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
More recent work has included writing for brass bands including the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and the Parc & Dare Band; and the perhaps less accessible album "Stockhausen: Michael's Farewell, etc" with John Wallace.
