Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is a British musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He moved to Wales in 2003.

Early life

Powell was born in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and later attended King's College School, Wimbledon, by which time he was also learning viola, violin and orchestral percussion. He began writing music by the age of eleven and later studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

in Germany, before taking a music master's degree at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

. While at Cambridge he joined an electronic music group, Intermodulation, with Roger Smalley, Tim Souster and Robin Thompson, and a local progressive rock group, Henry Cow, formed by

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry ...

and Tim Hodgkinson, in which he alternated between bass and drums.

Musical career

After leaving Cambridge, Powell's first professional engagement was as a soloist at the BBC Proms, London in August 1970, playing

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...

's ''Keyboard Studies'' with Roger Smalley. He later worked with several orchestras, including Covent Garden's, with the London Symphony Orchestra,

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

, BBC Welsh Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he worked with

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

. He also began to serve as a session player, and founded the group "Come to the Edge" with Robin Thompson and

Morris Pert Morris David Brough Pert (8 September 1947 – 27 April 2010) was a Scottish composer, drummer/percussionist, and pianist who composed in the fields of both contemporary classical and jazz-rock music. His compositions include three symphonies, p ...

, which performed regularly with the Japanese percussion virtuoso Stomu Yamashta. Powell's career as an arranger began at this time. His first commission was the debut album for Cockney Rebel, whose next two albums he also arranged. He worked with other artists, including

Leo Sayer Leo Sayer (born Gerard Hugh Sayer, 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter who has been active since the early 1970s. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingd ...

, John Miles ("

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

"),

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

(" Miss You Nights"),

Al Stewart Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs wi ...

('' Modern Times'', '' Year of the Cat'', '' Time Passages'', '' Russians & Americans'' and '' Between the Wars''),

Ambrosia In the ancient Greek mythology, Greek myths, ambrosia (, ) is the food or drink of the Greek gods, and is often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Mount Olympus, Olympus by do ...

(''Somewhere I've Never Traveled''), David Gilmour,

Chris Rea Christopher Anton Rea ( ; born 4 March 1951) is a British Rock music, rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist from Middlesbrough. Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty-five studio albums, ...

, Mick Fleetwood, The Hollies and Münchener Freiheit. Powell is credited as a member of

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock music, rock duo formed in London in 1975. Its core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared w ...

on its first album ('' Tales of Mystery and Imagination'') in the roles of arranger, conductor and composer. He continued to work as arranger and conductor on all but one of their albums, and with Alan Parsons when the group broke up. He performed live with Alan Parsons and Al Stewart, and made an orchestral album from The Alan Parsons Project's songs: ''The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays The Best of The Alan Parsons Project'' in 1983. Powell produced

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

's three-song demo tape and her debut album '' The Kick Inside'' (1978). He later produced, with help from Bush, her second album, '' Lionheart'' (1978). Other artists he has worked with include Chris De Burgh, Nick Heyward, Michael Crawford, Elaine Paige, The Hollies and

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. Powell wrote the soundtrack for the movies '' Ladyhawke'' and '' Rocket Gibraltar'' and has contributed to many other movie and TV projects. He has conducted orchestras and ensembles all over the world, including the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra and the Kammeroper München, as well as the Black Dyke Mills Band and Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

Recent work

More recent work has included arranging and conducting Wouter Van Belle's ''Wow & Flutter'', and writing for brass bands including the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Parc & Dare Band and Burry Port Town Band, also the album ''Stockhausen: Michael's Farewell, etc'' with John Wallace. ''Living Stones'' received its world première at St Davids Cathedral, Wales, on 27 October 2007, and ''Glasiad y dydd dros Ben Dinas'' at the City of London Festival on 19 March 2008. In 2017, after a break from film scoring of nearly 30 years, he composed original music for the sci-fi short ''Here We Go Again, Rubinot!'', directed by Italian cinematographer Giuliano Tomassacci. The score appeared the next year on Kronos Records in a limited CD release. Powell is artistic director of BluestoneArts, a social enterprise company that promotes music, words and visual arts in north

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Personal life

Powell moved to Wales in 2003, having started studying Welsh beforehand. He is now a fluent speaker.

References

External links

Official website
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Van Belle: Wow & Flutter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Andrew Living people 1949 births Alumni of King's College, Cambridge People educated at King's College School, London Henry Cow members English record producers English male songwriters Composers from London English people of Welsh descent English male conductors (music) 21st-century English conductors (music) The Alan Parsons Project members