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"Toovey consciously places himself outside what he regards as useless or outmoded conventions, whilst reserving the right to draw on, allude to, shoplift from absolutely anywhere. Not only are Toovey's musical sympathies unusually diverse and deliberately unaligned to the readymade categories of our recent past (minimalism, neo-Romanaticism, new complexity), but the fundamental stylistic "gesture" can be as readily compared to the visual arts as to any music- to the work of Robet Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg or Stanley Hayter." (Michael Finnissy) "Toovey's music is unapologetically complex, though personal and powerful too." (The Times) |
Andrew Toovey (b London 1962)
studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy and
briefly with Morton Feldman. After completing his BMus degree at
Surrey University he gained an MA and MPhil at the University of
Sussex, specialising in composition and aesthetics. His PGCE
studies were undertaken at the Institute of Education, University
of London.
Toovey's work embraces widely diverse influences, from music such
as that by Feldman and Finnissy, or from the poetry of Artaud,
Cummings and Rilke, and reflects his passion for 20th-century
visual art, especially that by Bacon, Beuys, Davies, Hayter,
Klee, Miro, Newman, Rauschenberg, Riley, Rothko and the Outsider
Artists. It has been performed throughout the UK, Europe, Canada,
Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and has featured at
the Bergen, Brighton, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield and ISCM festivals
and at the Darmstadt and Dartington International Summer Schools.
It is also frequently broadcast, on BBC Radio 3 and by various
European radio stations.
Toovey, who has been Artistic Director of the new music ensemble
IXION since 1987, was associate composer with the Young Concert
Artists Trust (YCAT) from 1993-5 and he was composer-in-residence
at the Banff Centre, Canada for four years, writing two operas
and other music theatre works in that time. His education work
includes projects for Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera,
Huddersfield Festival, the South Bank Centre and the London
Festival Orchestra, and he has been composer-in-residence at
Opera Factory and the South Bank Summer School. He has also
taught school music in a part-time capacity, and now teaches
composition at Birmingham Conservatoire, where he has recently
been awarded an M3C grant for his PhD composition studies.
His many awards include the Tippett Prize, Terra Nova Prize, the
Bernard Shore Viola CompositionAward and an RVW Trust Award.
Largo released two portrait CDs of his music (Including the
orchestral piece Red Icon and the opera The Juniper Tree) in
1998. Many other pieces appear individually on CD labels such as
NMC, ABC Classics, Nova, BMIC, ABRSM, Sound Circus and Kairos
Music. Some of his music is published by Boosey and Hawkes, while
pieces can be heard on his own YouTube channel or on this
website. Scores can be downloaded free of charge.
In a Tempo Magazine profile article Michael Finnissy wrote:
Toovey consciously places himself outside what he regards
as useless or outmoded conventions, whilst reserving the right to
draw on, allude to, shoplift from absolutely anywhere. Not only
are Tooveys musical sympathies unusually diverse and
deliberately unaligned to the ready-made categories of our recent
past (minimalism, neo-Romanticism, new complexity), but the
fundamental stylistic gesture can be as readily
compared to the visual arts as to any music - to the work of
Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg or Stanley
Hayter
Since 1982 he has written around 100 pieces for orchestra, large
ensemble, chamber groups and many solo instruments as well as
opera. Recent works include Verboten, Holding You and Euonia (a
self-contained group of ensemble pieces), First Out, Preludes and
Schrott, all for solo piano, the sequence The way it is now for
voice and viola, Contrecto for harmonium and tabla and Pump
Triptych for solo clarinet. He is currently composing an opera
based on James Purdys novel Narrow Rooms to a libretto by
Michael Finnissy.
Download
Chinese biography of
Andrew Toovey
"Tempo" article on Andrew Toovey by Michael Finnissy (1992) Download PDF