Andrew Leathwick comes from Waikato and studied at Waikato University. He was the 2013 winner of the NZ National Concerto Competition, and in 2015-16 Andrew was a student at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.
Wilma Smith and Friends Photo: WCMT
Wilma Smith (violin), Caroline Henbest (viola), Alexandra Partridge (cello), Andrew Leathwick (piano)
Composing is something Andrew Leathwick has always done in tandem with his performing.
He says the commission for this quartet came about from a chance encounter with Wilma Smith at a Melbourne tram stop in 2015. Wilma had just adjudicated a competition at the Australian National Academy and Andrew invited her to a performance of some of his own compositions. A short while later he received the commission for the Quartet.
He says that the three movement work draws on diverse influences, two of the clearest being 'strong dashes of Greek folk music' and the expansive sounds of the Russian composers Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.
Recorded 15 October 2017, St Andrew's on the Terrace, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Graham Kennedy
