ABOUT OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
ANDREW ARMSTRONG | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Photo by Corrine Parker Photography
Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Ehnes, Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and at chamber music festivals around the country.
This 2024-25 season, Andrew will perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg and Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Waterbury Symphony in Connecticut.
Andrew’s 2023-24 season included solo recitals in Glasgow, Scotland and in Norwich, England; concerts with the Barbican String Quartet in the UK & EU; violin recitals with James Ehnes at London’s Wigmore Hall and at Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan; Chamber Music in Halifax, NS & Portland, ME; Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic; release of Andrew’s solo album featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, and Aaron Jay Kernis; and a new recording session for the album “Home-Away-Home.”
The last few seasons have taken Andy throughout Europe with performances in Glasgow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, London at Wigmore Hall, Geneva at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve and at the Dresden Music Festival. He crisscrossed Canada with concerts in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the Scotia Fest, Montreal at the Festival Musique de Chambre and Vancouver at the Vancouver Chamber Music Society. And after joining James Ehnes to perform the complete Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle within Melbourne, Australia as well as a duo recital in Sydney, Andy stopped by Singapore for a solo recital.
In addition to his performance activities, Andrew serves as Artistic Director of two flourishing series in South Carolina—USC Beaufort’s Chamber Music Series and Columbia’s Andy & Friends, presented by the SC Philharmonic. In 2020, Andrew founded New Canaan Chamber Music in New Canaan, CT – he serves as Artistic Director of the thriving new series now entering its fourth season. And since 2023, he directs Fabbri Chamber Concerts in New York City at the Fabbri Mansion, a 1609 Italian Renaissance Library that seats 80, and was brought across the ocean and installed on the Upper East Side. In Wisconsin, from 2017 through 2021, Andrew was Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Wisconsin’s Green Lake Festival of Music.
Andrew’s debut solo CD featuring was released to great critical acclaim: “I have heard few pianists play [Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata], recorded or in concert, with such dazzling clarity and confidence” (American Record Guide). He followed that success with a disc on Cordelia Records of works by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and the world premiere recording of Bielawa’s Wait for piano & drone. He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime recital partner James Ehnes—most recently Beethoven’s Sonatas Nos. 7 & 10, to stellar reviews.
In addition to his many concerts, his performances are heard regularly on National Public Radio, WQXR, New York City’s premier classical music station, and stations across the country.
Finally, Andrew launches two new chamber music series this 24-25 season. In Greenville, SC, Sigal Music Museum presents Andy & Friends will present evening performances as well as daytime workshops and masterclasses at the remarkable public arts high school, the Fine Arts Center. And the inaugural season of Andrew’s new chamber series, A Little Night Music at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, MA is especially close to his heart, since this city is where Andrew Armstrong lives happily with his wife Esty, their three children Jack (18), Elise (13), and Gabriel (7), and their two dogs Comet and Dooker.
September 2024