Kerry Andrew

Kerry Andrew (born 5 April 1978, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire) is an English composer, performer, writer and educator.

She has a PhD in Composition from the University of York and is the winner of three British Composer Awards. Her debut novel, Swansong, is published by Jonathan Cape in January 2018.

From age 3 to age 6, Andrew lived in Canada with her family. The family subsequently returned to the UK and settled in the Buckinghamshire area. Andrew earned a BA in Music, MA and PhD in Composition, all from the University of York.

Andrew was Composer in Residence at Handel House Museum during 2010-12, and was Visiting Professor of Music at Leeds College of Music in 2015-16. She won her first British Composer Award in the Making Music Category in 2010 for her choral work Fall, and won two awards in 2014, in the Stage Works category for her wild swimming chamber opera' Dart's Love and in the Community or Educational category for her community chamber opera 'Woodwose,' for which she also wrote the libretto.

Andrew's 'No Place Like,' was written for the BBC Ten Pieces scheme, and receives BBC Proms performances in both 2017 and 2018. She has written large scale pieces for young and non-professional ensembles, including 400 Lewisham-based primary school children at the Royal Festival Hall; for Animate Orchestra, the Junior Trinity Symphony Orchestra and 500 singers of the South London Riverside Partnership at the Royal Albert Hall; and for the massed choirs of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall in her piece 'who we are.' She created a concept drawing and vocal EP A Lock Is A Gate for Art on the Underground in 2011, and NHS, a work simultaneously performed by 25 community ensembles around the UK for the Landmark Trust. In 2015, she wrote a piece for the London Sinfonietta to fight for the National Health Service (featuring the recorded voices of 60 members of the public, including actor/campaigner Michael Sheen).

Andrew was a British Council/PRS for Music Foundation Musician in Residence in China in Spring 2016, spending five weeks in the Henan Province in 2016. She made collaborative new rock/traditional-inspired songs based on foxes in folklore.

Andrew's choral works have been published by Faber Music and by Oxford University Press, including in Carols for Choirs. Her vocal trio piece The Song of Doves concluded the national memorial service for the victims of the 7 July bombings, receiving national broadcast live on the BBC and other news outlets. Her composition Dusk Songs was commissioned and recorded by The Ebor Singers, and released by Boreas Music in 2007. Elsewhere, her work has been recorded on the Naxos and Nonclassical labels, and choral premieres have been given by the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, The Hilliard Ensemble, ORA Singers, the Joyful Company of Singers and Alamire.

In addition to her composition work, Andrew performs with the vocal trio Juice Vocal Ensemble, who have released two albums on the Nonclassical label, which include her music. She also performs as alt-folk soloist You Are Wolf and is a multi-instrumentalist with the band DOLLYman. As You Are Wolf, she released her debut album, exploring British birds and folklore and entitled Hawk the Hunting Gone, in 2014 on Stone Tape Records.

Andrew has written libretto for her own music-theatre works and articles for the Guardian. She made her short story debut on BBC Radio 4's Stories from Songwriters Series in 2014, and Jonathan Cape publish her debut novel, Swansong, in January 2018.