Andrew Webb-Mitchell

The English Composer

  • "....his competence as an orchestrator is faultless, over-ridden by his genuine creative gifts. Imagine, if you will, a latter-day Tippett at the outset of his career: it is that good.”
    Matthew Robert-Walker
  • "In Songs of Awe and Wonder, Andrew Webb-Mitchell has created a stunning set of symphonic songs on a grand scale. The music is full of passion and heroism, with glorious harmony and beautiful textures...
  • ....The orchestration is beautifully detailed and the vocal writing creates a soaring line that carries the listener right through the vast canvas of the cycle."
    Tasmin Little OBE
  • "What a work it was! I could go on and on about its beauty, accessibility, anti-modern but still new and different, use of color throughout the ensemble, ...But most importantly... The little touch of magic....
  • ....(the) ability to craft a score that was so intense, thick, and full of rich and challenging parts for every individual instrument..
  • and, at the same time, one that the average patron with little musical background can embrace."
    Robert Trocina, Music Director, Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra
  • “Songs of Awe and Wonder is a beautiful, joyous and uplifting new work by a very accomplished composer....
  • ...Soaring vocal lines, sparkling orchestration and direct, vivid storytelling. A great new work.”
    Michael Price
  • "Andrew Webb Mitchell has produced a remarkable and important work in Songs of Awe and Wonder...
  • ...Dedicated to Gustav Mahler, this is passionate music on a grand scale – a modern day Song of the Earth."
    John Lenehan
  • "There is dream, daring and duende in the poetry of Songs of Awe and Wonder....
  • ...The core of these lyrics is their sheer, stark elegiac power reminding me of how I felt the first time I heard Rilke's Duino Elegies."
    David Morley

The English Composer

Born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire in 1970, Andrew Webb-MItchell’s development as a musician and composer was long and unconventional. Having read music at what is now Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, he embarked on an international career in music education, holding positions in Kuwait and Taiwan before leading music departments in several schools in the United Kingdom and, more recently, China.

In 2008 he was appointed Director of Music and Performing Arts at the British School of Beijing and in 2010 became founding Headmaster of King’s College Beijing. He is currently also Composer-in-Residence for The British Schools Group.

Despite his long and distinguished career as an educator, Webb-Mitchell’s main focus and passion has always been composition. Having become disillusioned with contemporary classical music from a listener’s perspective, he is determined to reclaim the concert hall for modern audiences, giving them new works in a challenging, yet direct and accessible, musical language.

Webb-Mitchell aims to resurrect the lost art of great writing for the classical voice, composing new works which are carefully crafted to engage with both the listener and performer. Songs of Awe and Wonder was recorded by the Brno Philharmonic in 2011, Webb-Mitchell’s professional debut recording. His orchestral song The Inspiration of Night was premiered at the Tianjin Grand Theatre in October 2012 by Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra.

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