Andrew Shulman’s career as cellist and conductor has taken him all over the world.
As soloist, Andrew has directed and performed most of the major cello concertos with orchestras all over Europe, the United States and the Far East, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Los Angeles and Royal Liverpool philharmonics, and the City of Birmingham, Utah and Singapore symphonies. He has given recitals and performed concertos at the Hollywood Bowl, the Royal Palace in Stockholm, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Buckingham Palace, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Musikverein in Vienna. The UK’s Sunday Times wrote of his performance with Sir Simon Rattle and the Philharmonia, “The Don Quixote was the finest I have heard.” In the 2006-07 season, his performance of Barber’s notoriously challenging cello concerto was met with rave reviews: “Shulman’s interpretation was of the highest caliber…his technical mastery was such that he made short work of the demands Barber placed on the soloist.” (Salt Lake Tribune)

As conductor, Andrew has performed extensively in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, the USA and Scandinavia. The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that “Shulman really carried the orchestra along…like a British Leonard Bernstein whose brilliance was still burning in Haydn’s ‘Philosopher’ Symphony.” He has conducted world premieres of several orchestral works, including a rare performance of a previously unpublished work by Benjamin Britten, with the Britten-Pears Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival. He is a regular guest conductor in London with the Haydn, the Ambache and the Royal College of Music chamber orchestras, the RCM Symphony Orchestra, the RCM String Ensemble and the Saloman Orchestra. He also appears as guest conductor with Sweden’s Jonkoping Orchestra and Ireland’s Ulster Youth Orchestra. He has directed the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the London Chamber Orchestra in Baroque concerto performances from the solo cello chair. In the field of opera, he conducted successful new productions of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte at the Theatre Royal Bristol, England and Mahler’s monumental Third Symphony at Bristol Cathedral.

Andrew was born into a family of professional musicians in London, England. His father plays contrabass and his mother is an opera singer. Andrew studied cello, composition and conducting at London’s Royal Academy and Royal College of Music. He served as solo cello of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, before being offered, at the age of 22, the principal cello position with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra by their music director, Ricardo Muti. In addition to several solo CDs, he has recorded over 25 CDs as cellist of the Britten Quartet (EMI) and was solo cello on Elton John’s Candle in the Wind 1997, a tribute to Princess Diana, the highest selling single of all time.

Andrew became a professor at the historic Royal College of Music in London in 1986, and has since given master classes all over the world. He was bestowed with an Honorary RCM by the Queen Mother and is the first British winner of the prestigious Piatigorsky Artist Award, from the New England Conservatory in Boston. Since coming to Los Angeles, Andrew has taught at USC and UCLA. He has also taught the Corwin Awards Master Class at the Los Angeles Music Center, and has performed and taught at the Aspen Music Festival (where he plays principal cello every summer), La Jolla’s SummerFest, Blue Mountain, Ojai and Las Vegas festivals, and San Diego’s Mainly Mozart festival.

From 1999 to 2002, Andrew served as principal cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became one of the most sought-after solo cellists working in the TV and movie music industry, performing on most of the major motion pictures and TV series scored in Los Angeles, including Avatar, Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. He was also a winner in the 2007 International Songwriting Competition with his electric cello instrumental H.A.N.D.

In recent years, he has concentrated on expanding his solo, chamber music, teaching and conducting activities. Andrew joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as principal cello in the 2008-09 season. He lives with his wife (also a cellist and Alexander Technique teacher, with whom he shares their private teaching studio), two children, one dog, two cats and several dozen coyotes in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains.

http://www.andrewshulman.com

photo Michael Burke