John Andrews is Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and Conductor-in-Association with the English Symphony Orchestra. Born in Nairobi and brought up in Manchester, he graduated from Cambridge University with a doctorate in music and history.
With a special affinity for Italian bel canto and the English baroque, he has conducted over 40 operas with companies including The Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera de Baugé and the Volkstheater Rostock. An exponent of neglected English music he has appeared regularly at the English Music Festival presenting works from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
His recordings include Incidental Music to The Tempest and Macbeth, the oratorio The Light of the World and comic opera Haddon Hall (Sir Arthur Sullivan) and The Mountebanks (Gilbert and Cellier) for Dutton Epoch with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Percy Sherwood’s Double Concerto and Sir Frederic Cowen’s 5thSymphony for EM Records, and Thomas Arne’s The Judgment of Paris for Dutton Vocalion, and most recently Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley.
He won a BBC Music Magazine Best Opera Award for his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master for Resonus Classics.