Andrew Norman is a composer of chamber and orchestral music. A native Midwesterner raised in central California, Andrew studied the piano and viola before attending the University of Southern California and Yale. His teachers and mentors include Martha Ashleigh, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Stewart Gordon, Aaron Kernis, Ingram Marshall, and Martin Bresnick.
A lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, Andrew writes music that is often inspired by forms he encounters in the visual world. His music draws on an eclectic mix of sounds and usually features some combination of bright colors, propulsive energy, a healthy dose of lyricism, and the fragmentation of musical ideas.
Andrew is a committed educator who enjoys helping people of all ages explore music. He has written several pieces to be performed by and for the young, and has held educational residencies with orchestras and festivals across the country, including a two-year relationship with the schools in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley. Andrew taught piano and composition at the Pasadena Conservatory and has given master classes at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School and the Des Moines Symphony Academy.
Andrew is increasingly active as an orchestral composer. His symphonic works, often noted for their clarity, vigor, and wit, have been commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the New York Youth Symphony.
Andrew’s chamber music has been featured at numerous venues in recent seasons, including the Wordless Music Series at Le Poisson Rouge, the MATA Festival, the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Juilliard School Focus Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. In May of 2010, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble presented a portrait concert of Andrew’s music entitled “Melting Architecture.”
Andrew spent the 2006-2007 academic year as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, where, when not eating gelato, he explored newfound interests in Cosmati pavement designs, Palladian villas, and the Norman kings of Sicily. In the fall of 2010 he returned from an equally rich year at the American Academy in Berlin, where, when not downing currywurst and bionade, he scratched the surface of Berlin's vibrant street art scene and heard lots of amazing music.
Upcoming projects for Andrew include commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Des Moines Symphony. He was recently named “Komponist für Heidelberg” for the 2010-2011 season, and is thrilled to be writing a Theremin concerto for Carolina Eyck and the Heidelberg Philharmonic to be premiered next April.
Andrew recently finished a two-year term as Composer-in-Residence for Young Concert Artists and his works are published by Schott Music.