“Rossini's Cinderella comes across with great verve, clarity and elegance in Andrew Griffiths' conducting.... Griffiths paces things brilliantly, not afraid to draw out a yearning strain that is often lost in the welter of Rossinian ebulliance.”
A graduate of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera, Andrew Griffiths has a growing reputation as a young conductor of considerable talent and versatility.
Particularly experienced in the theatre, his past engagements include Rita and La serva padrona for The Royal Opera, Hansel and Gretel for Opera North, La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro for Iford Festival Opera, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof for Paragon Ensemble Scotland, and Flavio and Amadigi for Early Opera Company. Whilst at Covent Garden he made his debuts with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera (subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3) and the Orchestra of Opera North. Concert work includes appearances with Southbank Sinfonia and the Orpheus Sinfonia.
Equally in demand as an assistant conductor, chorus-master and coach, Andrew has worked on numerous Royal Opera productions, including Wagner's Ring and the world premiere of Birtwistle's The Minotaur, under conductors including Antonio Pappano, Sir Mark Elder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Charles Mackerras. He has worked as a guest artist at Glyndebourne, Opera North, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theatre Company and Batignano, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers, and has gained extensive experience in Baroque repertoire as assistant to Christian Curnyn. He is regularly engaged to work as a vocal coach at The Royal Opera and the National Opera Studio.
A pianist, viola player and singer by training, Andrew began his musical education as a Quirister and Scholar at Winchester College, and graduated with distinction in music from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he held a Choral Exhibition. He pursued conducting studies under Martyn Brabbins at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and trained as a répétiteur at the National Opera Studio and at Scottish Opera. He is a former principal viola of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and a founder member of vocal consort Stile Antico. In 2008 he was chosen to receive the Wagner Society's Bayreuth Bursary.
Andrew recently took up Musical Director positions with Kingston Choral Society, with whom he will make his Cadogan Hall debut conducting Bach's St John Passion in March 2012, and chamber choir Londinium. During 2011-12 he also conducts Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Iford, a Gretry/Philidor double bill for Bampton Classical Opera and a French Baroque programme at Dartington International Summer School, and a concert with New London Chamber Choir. In addition, he works as assistant conductor for Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and for Castor and Pollux at ENO, coach for Judith Weir's Miss Fortune at The Royal Opera, and collaborates extensively with the BBC Singers, including at the BBC Proms and with Ensemble Intercontemporain.