Andrew Crust
Program: Rachmaninoff and the Hollywood Sound
Andrew Crust conducted the RSO on March 19, 2022. Listen to his pre-concert lecture, view the program book, and complete the post-concert survey on the Digital Stage.
Listen to a conversation with Andrew and Podcast Host Phil Davidson (approximately 36 minutes):
Listen to Andrew speak at SoundBites, a live luncheon event with RSO principal trumpet Mark Baldin (approximately 49 minutes):
Biography
Andrew Crust is the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony where he conducts the VSO in Subscription, Film, Pops, Education, and other series each season. In the challenging 2020/21 season Andrew filmed and recorded dozens of programs released on the VSO’s innovative platform theconcerthall.ca. He is also the recently-appointed Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio where he has collaborated with recent guest artists such as Amit Peled, Katherine Jolly, and Awadagin Pratt.
Recent or upcoming engagements include concerts with the symphony orchestras of Vermont, Arkansas and Bozeman as Music Director finalist, and San Diego, Hartford, Winnipeg, and others as guest conductor. International performances include l'Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Moravian Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile, and others. In 2018, he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, was selected for a residency at the Saltzburg Festival by the Ansbacher Fellowship and members of the Vienna Philharmonic, and was a semi-finalist for the internationally renowned Salzburg/Nestlé Young Conductors award in Austria. In 2020, Andrew was awarded a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.
Previously Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Andrew conducted more than 35 performances each season and led the vital Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As an arranger, he has orchestrated dozens of works and is currently working on a collaboration with Schirmer to orchestrate the art songs of Florence Price.
Andrew has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony, Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill. In 2017/18 he served as Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA with Michael Tilson-Thomas, Marin Alsop, and Giancarlo Guerrero, and accompanied the orchestra on a tour of Asia.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, the United States Jazz Ambassadors, and many others.
Andrew is also a visual artist working in watercolor, ink, and digital media, using a style which often combines the worlds of art and music. Andrew was born in Kansas City and studied conducting in Montréal and Boulder, Colorado.
Photo credit: Brian Thomas Photography
