Andre Swanepoel
Johannesburg-born André Swanepoel holds a Masters Degree from
the University of Pretoria and a Diploma from the Hochschule
für Musik, Cologne. His main violin teachers were Alan
Solomon, Winfried Rademacher and Charles-André Linale.
André is Principal Second Violin of the Irish
Chamber Orchestra – a position he’s held since 2003. Prior to that,
he spent several years as Principal 2nd of the
German Chamber Academy. He has also recently worked as
guest Leader with Welsh National Opera and as guest Principal with
Northern Sinfonia, the Hallé and the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra.
Recent performance highlights include chamber
concerts at the Ryedale, City of London, Chichester,
International Donau and St. Endellion Festivals and
concerto appearances in Ireland and northern England. He has
performed in South America for the German Goethe Institut
and has been broadcast on West German and Bavarian Radio. With his
wife, Rosie Biss and pianist Caroline Dowdle, he recently founded
the Cygnus Trio.
As a member of the “European Music Project” he
appeared in numerous theme-based “Concert-night” events throughout
Germany, and recorded 2 critically acclaimed live-CD’s (one of
these being Terry Riley’s legendary In C).
André is as passionate about music
education as he is about performing: his activities ranging from
community music and outreach work to coaching the Britten-Pears
Orchestra in 2010, and teaching on the ConCorda Chamber Music
course. He is also tutor for violin and chamber music at the
Weekend School at the Sage, Gateshead.