Music
A keen musician from his earliest years, Andrew Edwards conducted the Treasury Singers for most of the period between 1968 and 1983, and founded the Academy Choir Wimbledon in 1980, serving as Music Director of the Choir, the Academy Orchestra and the Academy Baroque Players for 36 years from 1980 to 2016 and performing most of the choral classics of the early, classical and modern periods.
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His main activity since 2005 has been composing the Jesus of Nazareth Cycle of Oratorios (see below).
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Alongside these activities he helped to promote the music of Mozart’s friend and contemporary, Thomas Linley the Younger, including the first performances since 1925 of Sheridan’s The Duenna (set to music mainly by the Linley family). He also developed a project for a full-length Rosamunde Ballet to music by Schubert and a scenario derived from a contemporary Press Report of the lost play for which Schubert wrote the Rosamunde incidental music.
He served as Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Royal Opera House from 1988 to 2006, a period which included the critical years of rebuilding and refurbishment (when the House’s very existence came under threat) and as first Chairman of the Wimbledon International Music Festival from 2009 to 2013 and again in 2017-2018.
Oratorio Cycle
Andrew's main activity in recent years alongside a Missa Brevis and other music mostly written for church services, has been as a composer of Oratorios, especially a projected cycle of four concert-length Oratorios, Jesus of Nazareth, still to be completed.
The four oratorios (one still to be written) are:
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The Christmas Story (completed 2015), for soloists, choir SATB & orch inc tubular bells
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Galilee to Jerusalem: the Story of Jesus’s Ministry (completed 2021), for SATB soloists, SATB choir & orchestra (inc piano, celeste, tubular bells, sheepbells, timps, gong, strings, woodwinds and brass)
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The Passion Story (still to be written)
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The Easter Story (completed 2010), for soloists, choir SATB, & orchestra inc tubular bells
Potential performers are warmly encouraged to get in touch with the composer about scores, performing material and archive recordings of first performances (for all except The Passion Story).
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Galilee to Jerusalem
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An edited archive recording of the first performance of Andrew Edwards’s latest Oratorio, Galilee to Jerusalem, is available online through the links below, along with the CD booklet (including libretto and composer's notes) and the vocal score.
Other music
Solo:
Surprised by joy, song for voice & piano, 1969
Methinks I saw my late-espousèd saint, 1971
Variations on a Theme of Homage to Henry Purcell, for solo violin, 1970
Magnificat for Sop solo & orch or organ, 2013 (inc archive recording)
Nunc Dimittis for Baritone solo & orch or organ, 2015 (inc archive recording)
Christmas Carols:
Forgive us Lord, ca 1992
Gabriel, ca 1994
Sleep peacefully, Lord Jesus, 2010
I sing of a maiden, 2015 (inc archive recording)
Descants for Silent Night, The Angel Gabriel etc
Choral:
Preces and Responses 2003, SATB, revised 2011
Missa Brevis, for SATB & Organ, 2005 (archive recording 2011)
Eucharist Acclamations 2005
O magnum mysterium, Motet, 2015 August (inc archive recording)
Now that our charmes have sped (missing chorus for Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas), 2012
Ballet:
Rosamunde Ballet, 2000 & later, music all by Schubert and scenario adapted by Andrew Edwards from a contemporary Press synopsis of the lost play by Wilhelmina Von Chezy for which Schubert wrote the Rosamunde incidental music (inc demo recording). Revised version planned.​
Cadenzas:
Cadenzas for Haydn Stabat Mater 2005
Cadenzas for Linley’s Shakespeare Ode, 2006, and The Duenna, 2007
Cadenzas for Haydn Creation 2010
Prayers:
Benedic Domine nos (a Latin Grace with Pater Noster), 2012
Succurre nobis (a Prayer before music, based on the Latin Grace)
Recordings
Demo-CD of Sheridan’s The Duenna (first-ever recording), 2007
An Anthology of Song, sung by Dominic Edwards, treble, 2007
The Easter Story, completed 2010, archive recording of first performance
The Easter Story Arias and Choruses and Missa Brevis, archive recording 2011
The Christmas Story, 2015, archive recording of first performance
Galilee to Jerusalem: the Story of Jesus’s Ministry, 2022, archive recording of first performance
Many CDs of Academy Choir & Orchestra concerts & services