Andrew Penny

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The conductor, Andrew Penny was born in Hull and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music following clarinet studies with Sydney Fell. As a postgraduate he was the first holder of the Rothschild Scholarship in Conducting, studying with Sir Charles Groves and Timothy Reynish. He worked with Sir Edward Downes in Holland and later at the BBC Conductors' Seminar in 1985.

Until 2006 he had been Musical Director of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra from 1982, the Head of Woodwind at Hymers College since 1978 and he also directed the Conductors' Course at the University of Hull for many years. In November 1999 he directed two performances of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, (The Symphony of a Thousand) as part of the Millennium Celebrations in that city.

Now Andrew Penny has made over thirty recordings for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. Most of the output is of British music: symphonies and symphonic works by Sir Malcolm Arnold, Hubert Parry, Cecil Gibbs and Havergal Brian; film music by Vaughan Williams and William Walton; theatre music by Sullivan, German and Holbrooke together with light music by Joyce, Duncan and Coates. He has now completed recording the full cycle of Malcolm Arnold's nine symphonies.

As well as this impressive contribution to British music, Andrew Penny has also conducted a recording of Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D-minor "played with ear-catching brilliance and joie de vivre" according to Gramophone (magazine) and recipient of their coveted Critics' Choice award. In the Gramophone Awards of 1999, the Editor's Choice Award was made to twenty-two Naxos discs as an outstanding contribution to twentieth century British music. Three of these releases were conducted by Andrew Penny.