Andrew Carter

b. 1930

Andrew Carter was born in 1939 into a Leicestershire family of tower and handbell ringers. Following a music degree at Leeds University, he joined York Minster choir as a bass songman, under the direction of the legendary Francis Jackson. For a decade he was also Director of Music at the nearby St. Mary’s Convent Grammer School where he achieved his first successes as a choir trainer.

In 1965 Andrew founded the Chapter House Choir at York Minster. During his seventeen-year conductorship, this mixed-voice concert group became nationally well-known for its various awards in the BBC Let the Peoples Sing competition. In 1984 Andrew and his family were invited to New Zealand, where he spent a year as Director of the Auckland Dorian Choir, University Chamber Choir and Youth Choir. On returning to York, his career as a freelance composer began to take shape.

Andrew Carter’s compositions have been published over a period of thirty years. His early carol and folk song arrangements were penned for his York choirs and published by Banks Music Publications. Much of Andrew’s music has been published by Oxford University Press, and recently by MorningStar Music Publishers.

Great is the Lord was published in 2002 by MorningStar and is a 5 movement choral work for choir, organ, and optional orchestra.