Quick Facts
Biography
Andrew Carter (born 1939) is an English composer, conductor and arranger.
Biography
Born in Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, Carter studied music at the University of Leeds, before moving to York and joining the choir at the Minster as a bass. Whilst there, in 1965 he founded the Chapter House Choir, a mixed voice ensemble that achieved national renown under his direction of seventeen years. After spending a year conducting and adjudicating in New Zealand (1984), he returned to England to focus on composition.
The Oxford University Press have published more than fifty of his compositions over a period of association spanning twenty-five years. The famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast annually on the BBC by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, has included several of his carols, including A maiden most gentle and Mary's Magnificat.
A notable moment in Carter's musical career was a commission in 1997 to write a mass (Missa Sancti Pauli) for the tercentenary celebration of St Paul's Cathedral in London.In 2007, he composed a 22-variation Passacaglia for organ to mark the 90th birthday of the former York Minster organist Francis Jackson.
He travels extensively in Europe and Australia and New Zealand as a choral director.
Compositions
Choral works
- A maiden most gentle
- An Affirmation
- Mary's Magnificat
- Christ is the morning star
- Benedicite
- Te Deum
- Musick's Jubilee
- Horizons
- Song of Stillness
- Laudate Dominum
- The Southwell Service
- Missa Sancti Pauli
- The Light of the World
- Hodie Christus natus est
- Rejoice in the Lord alway (2001)
- O mistress mine (2005)
Organ works
- Organ Concerto (2005)
- Toccata on Veni Emmanuel
- Passacaglia (2007)
Other works
- Three Nonsensical Songs for upper voices and orchestra
- A Little Suite for Heather for Treble Recorder and Piano (Forsyth Publishing)