Andrew Wise studied music at Cambridge University (UK) and piano & conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After working for a number of years in opera, as a choral conductor, and as a pianist primarily in chamber music and lied. he started to compose about ten years ago.

 

“I saw composing as a way of liberating myself as a performing musician. I was struggling with the notes I had to play and conduct because I saw them just as instructions which I was to try and follow to the letter. My own technical limitations (all musicians have technical limitations!) meant that this approach condemned me to frustrated failure. By composing myself I discovered that the notes on the page are not only for the performer but also for the composer only rather rough guidelines, and that it’s communicating the message that counts.”

 

Wise has written several choral works, an opera, a cantata for children’s choir, and sundry song arrangements. His most recent works are the Three Auden Songs (2006), which received their first performance by Conor Biggs and  Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on 19th January 2007.