Andrew Berridge

What got you interested in music?
Family – from singing with grandparents to having a fisher price mini record player that had some very basic tunes which I played to death!

Name your favourite Scottish Ensemble collaboration?
It’s a hard contest but I think Goldberg Variations still tops the list – it was the first project that we did with Örjan Andersson and it had a huge impact both on me personally, and on the group as a whole. I honestly think it’s impacted everything we’ve done since, and I feel so lucky to have been able to revisit it so many times (more than 50 performances!).

Where is your favourite place in Scotland?
Lewis and Harris. I started having summer holidays up there a few years ago, and shortly afterwards did a short SE project with Calum Martin and the Lewis psalm singers. There was something incredibly raw and almost elementally emotional about that experience which has become bound up in that place for me. I love it’s wild beauty and I’d move there in a heartbeat if the commute wasn’t so rubbish…

If you could see Scottish Ensemble collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why?
Caroline Shaw. I’ve become slightly obsessed with her music over the years, I think she writes brilliantly for strings and her fearless, collaborative approach to music making is really engaging. We programme her music quite a lot and I always end up completely immersed in her sound world, so many of her pieces are total earworms for me and it would be incredible to see what she’d cook up for us!

Biography

Andrew was born on the Wirral and grew up in Leeds, playing the violin from the age of 5 and went on to lead the local youth orchestra and youth opera orchestra. He briefly studied Law at the University of Liverpool before switching to music, completing his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music on violin and then viola, studying with Scott Dickinson and winning prizes for both viola and chamber music. In 2003 he joined the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as principal no.2 viola having previously freelanced extensively in the north of England, and has remained in Scotland. He has appeared as guest principal with the other major Scottish orchestras as well as Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Welsh National Opera and has been a member of Scottish Ensemble since 2012.