ANDREW MANZE is one of today’s most passionate and articulate advocates of early music. As a violinist he specializes in repertoire from 1610 to 1830. As a conductor, Manze is in great demand among period- and modern-instrument orchestras around the world. He also teaches, edits, and writes about music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. He is a presenter of BBC radio’s Early Music Show.

After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin with Simon Standage and Marie Leonhardt. He was Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music from 1996 to 2003, and succeeded Trevor Pinnock as Artistic Director of The English Concert in July 2003. He is also Artist-in-residence at the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Andrew Manze is increasingly sought-after as a guest conductor in symphonic repertoire and large-scale oratorios throughout Europe, the US, and Australia. Future engagements include concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish, Zurich, and Norwegian Chamber Orchestras.

In his role with The English Concert, Manze is increasingly moving into Classical repertoire, including Mozart’s violin concertos, orchestral works, and re-orchestrations of Handel’s oratorios, while continuing to perform baroque works. 2003 saw his debut tour with the orchestra in the UK, a televised concert at the London Proms, and a reconstruction of Handel’s Water Music on the River Thames filmed by the BBC. Highlights of 2004 include the premiere of a newly unearthed Easter Mass by Biber, a return to the Proms (live on BBC TV) and visits to many major European festivals, including Bath, York, Cheltenham, Utrecht, La Chaise Dieu, Prague, and Flanders. He will also be giving concerts in Germany, Spain, and the Canary Islands, and making an extensive US tour.
In their first recording together, Manze led The English Concert in a Mozart program, including Eine kleine Nachtmusik; their next recordings will feature violin concertos from Vivaldi`s little-known Viennese La cetra, Biber’s chamber music masterpiece, Fidicinium sacro-profanum, and Mozart’s violin concertos.

Manze records exclusively for Harmonia Mundi USA, and has released an astonishing variety of CDs. Recordings made with the Academy of Ancient Music, as a soloist, and as a chamber musician have garnered many international prizes, including the Gramophone, Edison, and Cannes Classical Awards, the Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi, and the Diapason. His long-standing collaboration with Richard Egarr has won great acclaim. Their discography includes sonatas by Rebel and Bach (awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) and Pandolfi’s complete Violin Sonatas (Gramophone Award, 2000). Their complete Handel Violin Sonatas was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award, and appeared on the Billboard classical chart. Their next releases will be of Mozart’s ‘Auernhammer’ sonatas and the Rosary Sonatas of Biber.

Manze is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, and he has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concertos by Mozart and Bach published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf and Härtel.