Wareham, A

Biography

Andy Wareham (B. 1994) is a composer, conductor and brass tutor hailing from Southampton, England.

His musical journey began at the age of six under the tuition of Lesley Milam and ever since then he has aspired to become an accomplished music professional. He has become a keen musicologist, conductor and composer within the British brass band movement.

Andy has a background as an experienced jazz trumpet player and brass band cornetist and has performed in a number of high profile locations. These include the Montreux Jazz Festival, The Concorde Club Southampton, Principality Stadium, Wales Millennium Centre, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Barbican Centre, Branwyn Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. He has received a number of awards for his performance, including a special honour from Wynton Marsalis following a performance at the Barbican Centre in London during the ‘Essentially Ellington’ competition, hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

As a published composer with a range of publishing houses, Andy has won a number of awards for his music. These include the ‘Vivendi Composition Award’, The Cory Band Composition Competition 2017, A4 Brass Quartet’s Composition Competition 2019, The British Trombone Society Composers’ Competition 2020 and the British Bandsman March Contest 2023. Andy also achieved the second prize in the EBBA European Composers Competition 2022 with his large scale work “Machiavelli: Ruminations on ‘The Prince’” receiving a world premiere by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. His music has been featured on BBC television and radio as well as at major festivals and brass band contests, including the Brass in Concert Championships and the RNCM Festival of Brass.

From 2018 - 2021, Andy proudly held the position of ‘Young Composer in Residence’ with the world famous Black Dyke Band and worked under the guidance and mentorship of Black Dyke’s acclaimed Composer in Association, Professor Philip Wilby. He also currently holds a position as Composer in Association with the Manchester based ‘Northern Quarters Brass Quartet’, made up of principal musicians from some of the UK’s leading brass bands (Brighouse & Rastrick, Black Dyke and the WFEL Fairey Band).

As a conductor, Andy is in demand. He currently holds the position of Musical Director with Ocean Brass Band and has previously held positions with a range of choirs, wind bands, big bands and orchestras in the UK. His conducting has also seen him travel internationally to work with ensembles in Europe.

After graduating from Cardiff University as a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in 2016, Andy went on to study as a Master of Music (Hons) at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He was accepted as the first student in the history of the conservatoire to study as a Brass Band Conducting specialist and studied under the guidance of renowned conductor, adjudicator and Euphonium virtuoso, Dr Robert Childs where he achieved a first class honours in conducting performance and completed a 10,000 word dissertation on the history of the brass band musical director. Following two years of co-conducting the RWCMD Brass Band, he graduated in July 2018 and directed the band one final time at his own graduation ceremony