User:Andrew Fysh

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General information

Country of origin: Australia

Contributor since: 2019-03-15

Works with editions by this editor: 75 (see list)

Contact information

e-mail: firstname lastname (without space) [at] icloud.com

Background

As a long-time devotee of High-Renaissance polyphony, dissatisfied with the range (and, sometimes, quality) of available editions, I decided a couple of years ago it was time to start creating my own. I gravitated towards LilyPond as a starting point, but am so impressed with the quality of its output that I’ve stuck with it! I am very keen to make lesser-known works available for modern performance through high-quality modern editions...indeed, that is my primary motivation. Nothing would please me more than to hear from performers who have decided to use these editions in liturgical or concert presentation.

I am particularly indebted to John O’Donnell (founder and director of Melbourne’s Ensemble Gombert and eminent scholar of High-Renaissance polyphony performance practice) and Simon Biazeck (fellow former member of Ensemble Gombert, talented composer and singer, and regular contributor here) for their advice and guidance, especially in relation to the application of musica ficta.

You can read more about my musical background in my bio below:


Originally from Hobart, Tasmania, where he began his singing career over forty years ago as a treble at St David’s Cathedral, Andrew has considerable experience as both chorister and soloist throughout Australia. Church music has featured throughout Andrew’s career — he has been a member of the choirs of Trinity College (Melbourne), the Canterbury Fellowship (Melbourne), St George's Cathedral (Perth), Christ Church St Laurence (Sydney), and St James' Church (Sydney); in 2004–06, while living in London, he deputised regularly as a lay clerk at the London Oratory and St Marylebone Parish Church.
Now resident in Canberra, Andrew is a founding member of the Clarion vocal quartet, performing monthly at the National Portrait Gallery, and sings with Coro. Coro's program of Renaissance polyphony, 'Music by Numbers', which Andrew devised and co-directed, was named by the Canberra Times as one of the top five concerts of 2015. Andrew’s particular interest lies in Renaissance and Baroque music, nurtured through fourteen years as a permanent member of Melbourne’s acclaimed Ensemble Gombert, directed by John O’Donnell, with whom he has toured Europe (2004, 2006, 2015) and North America (2009).
Andrew has been engaged as a guest artist with the The Song Company, Australia’s only full-time professional vocal ensemble, on multiple occasions, most recently at the 2014 Canberra International Music Festival as bass soloist in Bach Cantata No.130 and Mozart Requiem. Among three Song Company recordings in which Andrew appears, the 1996 world-premiere release of Schütz Der Schwanengesang, recorded in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, received Soundscapes magazine’s ‘Editor's Choice’ award.
Andrew is a founding member of the Bach Akademie Australia (BAA), which launched to critical acclaim in 2017 at sold-out performances in Sydney and at the Canberra International Music Festival. He has been bass soloist with the Canberra Bach Ensemble (CBE) since its relaunch in 2016, and will be performing with them at the BachFest in Leipzig in June 2020.
In 2019, Andrew again joined BAA for performances of Lenten and Easter cantatas in Sydney, and appeared with both BAA and Clarion at the Canberra International Music Festival. On Good Friday, he joined other soloists from the Choir of St James’ as the Evangelist Quartet in Arvo Pärt Passio at the Tapestry of Sacred Music festival in Singapore. In the latter part of the year, Andrew again appeared as bass soloist with CBE in a program that included Bach Magnificat, joined BAA in Sydney for a program of Christmas cantatas, performed Britten A Boy was Born with Ensemble Gombert, and presented a program of solo and trio Christmas cantatas by Stradella, Schütz and Charpentier with Adhoc Baroque in Canberra.