Over the last few years Andrew Manze has established a reputation as one of the most stimulating and energetic conductors of his generation. He draws upon a particularly wide range of expertise ranging from the baroque through classical, nineteenth- and twentieth-century repertoire and his unique skills as a communicator make him a particular favourite with both audiences and orchestras.
As a guest conductor Manze has regular relationships with a number of leading orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish and Swedish Chamber Orchestras. Manze’s future guest conductor engagements include debuts with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic.
Since September 2006 Manze has been Principal Conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Sweden. In 2008 they made a very successful 12-concert tour of the USA with a programme which Manze had specially devised entitled ‘The Eroica Effect’. This was linked to the release of their highly praised recording of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ for Harmonia Mundi. Manze also holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra who he takes to the Bergen Festival in May 2009.
Notable highlights of the 2008/9 season were his debut with the Ensemble ACJW in Carnegie Hall in New York, two concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in the Berlin Philharmonie celebrating the Mendelssohn anniversary, and a concert performance of Fidelio with Nina Stemme and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in Stockholm.
After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became Associate Director of The Academy of Ancient Music in 1996 and then Artistic Director of The English Concert from 2003 to 2007.
Manze has released an astonishing variety of CDs, many of them award-winning. They include Mozart violin concertos, Handel arias with Mark Padmore, Mozart’s Eine kleine Nacht Musik, Vivaldi’s little-known Viennese La cetra and a recently unearthed Biber mass, as well as concertos by Bach, Handel and Geminiani. Manze’s long-standing collaboration with his duo partner Richard Egarr won great acclaim with their recordings of sonatas by Bach, Handel, Pandolfi, Rebel, Biber, Mozart and Schubert. These discs have won many prizes, amongst them two Gramophone Awards, three Edisons, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, a BBC Music Magazine Award and a 2003 Grammy nomination. Future recording plans include the Stenhammar concertos on Hyperion and a cycle of Brahms Symphonies for CRD Records.
Manze is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, edits and writes about music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television.
