profile
Composer to the stars Andrew Cottee
leads BBC NOW’s Christmas concerts Though not a household name, conductor and composer Andrew Cottee’s collaborators certainly are. This December, however, he tells Rhiannon Farr why he’s eschewing Hollywood for south Wales concert halls to helm the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales’ festive celebrations.
With TV superstar Seth MacFarlane, pop music icon Paul McCartney and film giants like Disney and Universal Pictures on his credits list, what better conductor than Andrew Cottee to lead the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales’ crowdpleasing Christmas concerts in Swansea and Cardiff this year? “I just love every performance,” he enthuses to me. “I never get tired of it.” The excitement in his voice demonstrates just how much he looks forward to them, especially as he can just focus on conducting and not composing for them.
Cottee’s love for composing and arranging came from studying orchestral percussion at the Royal College Of Music: under the supervision of conductor John Wilson, he began to transcribe pieces of music he loved by listening to recordings and writing them down. His impressive repertoire cements him as an impressive British export in his field.
The concert programme, titled Swingin’ Christmas, is mainly made up of recognisable pieces, he adds, but even the less popular arrangements are undeniably Christmassy. A standout moment for Cottee, for instance, is his underscoring of the poem The Night Before Christmas. He describes conducting this arrangement as “difficult but rewarding” due to the different forms it can take depending on who is reciting the poem. His favourite piece he’s written, however, is vastly different. Cottee worked with MacFarlane (of Family Guy, American Dad and The Orville fame) on his album Blue Skies, and the track On Green Dolphin Street allowed Cottee to experiment with the accompanying instruments. “I always wanted to be a jazz pianist when I was a kid, so at least I’m half fulfilling my ambition of being a jazz musician by getting to write some cool jazz lines for these musicians.”
As a former music student, I was interested in who influences Cottee’s writing. Being a TV and film composer, the likes of classical titans like Mozart and Beethoven are not of huge use to him. For Cottee, his number one influence is cinematic peer John Williams, as you’d expect, but his inspirations also include screen composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Howard Blake and Max Steiner.
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It all circles back to the classical composers of years past, though. As Cottee says, “A lot of these people wrote concert pieces as well but they’re primarily screen composers. However, they also tend to be influenced by classical composers in turn, so it’s all interconnected.” When asked to elaborate on his composing process, it transpires he had never composed anything original until he had long left college. “It never came easy to me. Composing was never something I wanted to do when I was young.” Instead, Cottee focused his talents on percussion.
Of course, the Christmas period is a hectic time for everyone, so it’s rather refreshing to hear that even the busiest of musicians spend their time winding down the same way as everyone else. “Our sociocultural calendar has a natural break built into it after these Christmas shows,” Cottee explains, “so that works really well for me.” He tells me that he has family over every year and the orchestra always set aside a few days over the Christmas period to have off, so he doesn’t really have any specific ways of relaxing. “Every year I’m excited about it!” he says, of the imminent Christmas shows.
For a musician whose composing schedule is kept jampacked by international stars, it seems that conducting these classical Christmas performances closer to home every year is a form of enjoyment rather than work.
Swingin’ Christmas, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wed 14 Dec. Tickets: £10-£20/£5 kids. Info:
brangwynhall.co.uk
St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, Thurs 15 Dec. Tickets: £15/£5 kids. Info:
stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
Dan Goldwasser
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