At
the same time, Andrew was conducting the Apollo
Symphony Orchestra, a group of young professionals
keen to bite into the tough repertoire. With the
Apollo, he directed most of the Mahler Symphonies,
as well as the major works of Strauss, Bartok,
Stravinsky, and so on.
This experience enabled
Andrew to win the position of Assistant Conductor
to The Cleveland Orchestra, and he moved to the
United States in 1978. In his first year, he had
the chance to stand in at short notice to conduct
the Bruckner 8th in Linz, Austria.
Since then, he has held positions on the staff
of The San Francisco Symphony, the New Orleans,
Symphony, and The Milwaukee Symphony, and has
spent many years as Music Director of The Toledo
Symphony, The Fresno Philharmonic, The Oregon
Mozart Players, and The Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Especially during his years in San Francisco,
Andrew conducted a great deal of contemporary
music, including major scores by Elliot Carter,
Olivier Messiaen, Steve Reich, John Adams, Gyorg
Ligeti, as well as Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.
On the other hand, Andrew directed the annual
July 4th SFSO concert at Shoreline for seven consecutive
years.
Composing and writing have been taking more of
his time in recent years, as he pulled back a
little from the life of non-stop conducting. His
orchestral work “Early Mourning” a
memorial for 9/11, was performed under his baton
by The Toledo Symphony, and led to a new fluency
in composing. He was a special fellow in composing
at the Millay Colony for the Arts in 2004.
His conducting activities are taking a major role
again in his life, after the re-invigorating diversification
of effort, and he plans to continue balancing
composing and conducting henceforth. He also is
working on a series of essays on music, taking
a slightly new look at many major repertoire works.
The first to appear will be about the Symphonie
of Webern, the War Requiem of Benjamin Britten,
and the 5th Symphony of Beethoven. Yes, there
really still are a few things to be said about
that.
Andrew Massey is also very much concerned with
the experience of music from the inside, not just
as something that people enjoy listening to. This
involves the ever-difficult relationship between
conductors and players, as well as between composers
and players, and even the way audience members
are enabled to become familiar with more of the
huge repertoire that is still known widely only
to a small number of people. He even delves into
the philosophy of aesthetics, confronting the
strange mystery that is music: people devoting
their lives, and seeking their enrichment, from
people making funny noises with strange machines.
The mystery of music remains mysterious.
He married his wife, Sabra, whom he met at The
Cleveland Orchestra, in 1982, and, to avoid the
constant peripatetic nature of musical life, they
have made their home in the north of Vermont.
They have two children: Robin, who is a junior
at Bennington College, and Sebastian, who is serving
with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. There
are also four cats and two handsome bearded collie
dogs. And lots of trees. |
