Andrew Howes (b.1992) is a Sydney-based composer, building an international reputation for orchestral and choral music. His compositions and orchestrations have been heard in film and TV, as well as on main-stages across Australia, Europe, the UK and the USA. After the Clifton Parker Award afforded him the opportunity to study with Alison Kay and Simon Holt at the Royal College of Music, London, he moved to New York to complete his Master’s with Susan Botti at the Manhattan School of Music, where in 2017 he won the Manhattan Prize.

 

Andrew enjoys working with a wide range of performing media and his works have been performed by the Enigma Quartet, Windplay, AYO's Alexander Orchestra, AYO’s Chamber Players, Sydney Youth Orchestra, Moorambilla Voices, the Willoughby Symphony, Orchestra Victoria, the Sydney Camerata, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, The Song Company, Taikoz, and the Sydney Symphony.

 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, he composed The Aching Bones, premiered by Oliver Shermacher, Anna Da Silva Chen and Vatche Jambazian in the Sydney Opera House’s New Australian Classical series, Winangara, premiered by Diana Doherty, Joshua Batty and Evan Streater as part of The Chamber Project’s 2020 season, Lake Lines 5, premiered by Glenn Christensen during The Chamber Project’s Couch Concerts series, Luminifera - Wild Light for Orchestra, to be premiered in 2022 by the Sydney Symphony and received joint first prize in Bel A Capella’s Choral Composition prize for his work Moss Stone Cantic. His first album Telopea was released in September, 2021.

 

Andrew has become an in demand arranger and orchestrator, having helped to create over a hundred orchestral tracks for UPM and Premiumbeat, During 2020 and 2021 he created several arrangements for the concert series Live at Yours, for performers including Vatche Jambazian, Emily Granger, Andrew Haveron and Simon Tedeschi, and since 2011 has orchestrated several works for performance by the Sydney Symphony, including songs for Josh Pyke’s Live at the Sydney Opera House album.

 

In 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019, Andrew was composer in residence for the APRA-award winning Moorambilla Voices. He has continued to create works and content for Moorambilla Voices throughout the pandemic, including several Moorambilla Magic Modules in collaboration with choreographer Jacob Williams. He was composer in residence in 2019 for the inaugural Milbi Festival, and collaborated with Robert McLellan to create the Taribelang Welcome Song.