Simon Andrews (composer)

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Simon Andrews is a British composer, and Head of Theoretical Studies, Composition, and Director of The Academy Chorale.

He was born in Croydon, England. He was educated at Chichester Cathedral Choir School. He has a B.A. and B.Mus. in composition, from Christ Church, Oxford, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

He pursued composition and piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music. His compositions have been performed in California, New York, Baltimore, Boston, China and Zambia. In addition to composition, Dr. Andrews has been involved in education as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Ensembles at Franklin and Marshall College, and as Conductor of the Lancaster Opera Company and Music Director of the Harrisburg Choral Society. He joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music in 2001.

[edit] Simonisms

Simon is notorious for several different catch phrases he uses when conducting performing ensembles or teaching classes. They are listed below with a definition following.

Altoids: This is the alternate word Simon chooses to use to refer to the alto voice part.
Scrunchy Chords: A word that refers to chords that have very close dissonances in them.
Da Toppo: From the top (Da Capo)
Acapulco: Unaccompanied
Dangling Tone: Referring to an escape tone

[edit] Compositions

Mozart Requiem- For 20 years Simon's passion and obsession led him to revise, edit, and re-orchestrate the final work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His version is very different from many others as he strived to take the work of Mozart's student Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who completed Mozart's requiem after his death, and re-orchestrate it to sound more like Mozart had composed it himself, including the complete restructuring of the development section of Süssmayr's Hosanna fugue in the Sanctus and Benedictus movements. This piece was first performed in 1996 in Lancaster, PA with the Franklin & Marshall Choir and had its professional debut in November 2006 with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Lancaster Symphony Choir, the Franklin & Marshall Choir, and the Millersville University Chorale under the direction of maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser.