The world première recording of Andrew Smith's Old Irish Blessing, performed by Caritas Chamber Choir with soprano Catherine Futcher, directed by Benedict Preece, is released by Ulysses Arts on 15 March 2024, in partnership with Platoon. This single is the first pre-release for a new album of contemporary choral music launching in summer 2024.
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Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith (b. 1970) is a British-Norwegian composer with a growing international reputation for choral and vocal music that links tradition with a contemporary idiom.
He read Music and English at the University of Oslo. Composing, a hobby since the age of eight, began in earnest in the late 1990s when he wrote a piece for the newly-formed Trio Mediaeval (Norway). The subsequent recording of this and other music for the Trio brought Andrew to the attention of the American audience and led the way to collaborations with groups such as New York Polyphony, Khorikos Chamber Choir and Gothic Voices.
Andrew’s Requiem, composed for the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir in response to the tragic events in Norway in July 2011, was first performed in Trondheim in 2012. The work features on the Nidaros Cathedral Girls Choir album LUX, awarded a Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album in January 2020.
Andrew has been commissioned and performed by numerous choirs in Norway and abroad. Recent commissions include Lukaspasjon, a setting in Norwegian of the Passion according to St. Luke for Oslo Cathedral Choir, and O Antiphons for the Khorikos Chamber Choir in New York, first performed in 2019.
Andrew Smith’s music is published principally by Norsk Musikforlag, with some works published by Oxford University Press.
