The British conductor, pianist and composer Andrew Wise lives in Gent, Belgium. He studied musicology in Cambridge and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Maurice Miles and John Carewe, with Lucas Vis in Amsterdam, and with Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart. He started his career as repetiteur at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam and was soon invited to be chorus master at the Netherlands Travelling Opera based in Enschede.

 

From 1994 to 1997 Andrew was chorus master at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp, and from 1998 to 2003 chorus master of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. He appeared as guest conductor with the Danish Radio Choir, the Flemish Radio Choir, chamber choir Carmina (Copenhagen), Tivoli's Koncertkor, Onafhankelijk Toneel Opera (Rotterdam), Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Den Anden Opera (Copenhagen), het Valerius Ensemble, and Opera Zuid. He was chief conductor of the Hoofdstad Operette (Amsterdam) in 1999/2000. In 2002 Andrew Wise was invited by Kent Nagano to assist him with the preparation of Wagner's Die Walküre with the Göteborg Symfoniker, and subsequently also with the production of Das Rheingold in 2005. This has led to further engagements as an orchestral conductor, including Die Zauberflöte and Don Pasquale with the Alden Biesen Festival Orchestra (Belgium) in 2004, and regular invitations to conduct at the Swedish National Orchestra Academy in Göteborg. He was conductor of the Middelburg Chamber Choir from 2005 to 2008. From 2008 to 2011 he was conductor of Cantabile-Gent.

 

As a pianist his principal interests are chamber music and lied accompaniment. He is a founding member of the Argandi Piano Trio. With André Kerver, clarinet, he recorded the sonata for clarinet and piano by Adam Gorb. He is vocal coach at the Antwerp Conservatory, teacher of oratorio in the department of singing and staff pianist specialising in vocal and cello repertoire.

 

He has been active as a composer since the year 2000, in the main writing vocal music. He has written a number of choral works, a song cycle on poems by W.H. Auden, a one-act opera, and many choral and vocal arrangements.