biography
A musician of rare versatility, Andrew Griffiths combines his role as Head Coach & Music Consultant at the National Opera Studio with a busy freelance career in the worlds of opera and choral music.
A graduate of The Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, he has conducted productions for The Royal Opera (Linbury Theatre), The Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Opera Theatre Company, Opera Collective Ireland, Early Opera Company, Mid Wales Opera, Bampton Classical Opera and Iford Festival Opera. He has appeared in concert with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Swan, Southbank Sinfonia and Orpheus Sinfonia, and is regularly engaged to broadcast and record with the BBC Singers.
Andrew has worked at Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, and with the BBC Symphony and Scottish Symphony Orchestras, and regularly joins the music staff at The Royal Opera, working alongside such conductors as Pappano, Bychkov, Elder, Gardiner and Mackerras. He is often engaged for projects outside the standard operatic canon, and is particularly experienced in Baroque repertoire and the music of the last fifty years. Much in demand as a vocal coach, he works frequently with the Young Artists at The Royal Opera, as well as overseeing the training of the singers and pianists at the National Opera Studio.
In constant demand as a choral conductor, Andrew appears regularly with the BBC Singers, for whom his engagements have included the world premiere of John Pickard’s Mass in Troubled Times, recordings of Brahms, Hassler, Barber, Ives and Giles Swayne, and broadcasts of Howells, Parry, MacMillan and Martinů, as well as a Barbican debut directing music from the Flemish Renaissance. He is Musical Director of Kingston Choral Society and chamber choir Londinium, whose debut disc, The Gluepot Connection, received wide critical acclaim. He regularly conducts for Dartington International Summer School, and has appeared as a guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Chorus, New London Chamber Choir, and Hong Kong's Tallis Vocalis.
A pianist, viola player and singer by training, Andrew began his musical education as a Quirister and Scholar at Winchester College, and read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he held a Choral Exhibition. He studied conducting under Martyn Brabbins in Glasgow, 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 addition to his work at the National Opera Studio, Andrew's engagements during the 2022-3 season include reinvitations to the Royal Opera for Alcina, Opera Collective Ireland for Semele, and to the Orchestra of the Swan to conduct music by Paul Patterson.