Samuel Andreyev (born Samuel Curnoe Andreeff; 15 April 1981) is a Canadian composer who has resided in France since 2003. As of 2021, he has completed about 30 works, nearly all of which have been recorded commercially. Also known for his YouTube channel, his videos, interviews and podcasts have been viewed millions of times. He currently teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and at the Strasbourg Center of the University of Syracuse.

Contents

• 1 Life
• 2 Works
• 3 Select discography
• 4 References
• 5 Sources
• 6 External links

Life

Andreyev was born and raised in Kincardine, Ontario, moving with his family to Toronto in 1988. There he enrolled in The Royal Conservatory of Music, studying cello and oboe, as well as composition. Additionally, he experimented on his own, fascinated by rare instruments and the possibilities offered by recording technology. While living in Toronto, he recorded 8 albums of songs, ran a small publishing house devoted to experimental poetry, performed with a troupe of local musicians, and completed his first acknowledged composition, Le malheur adoucit les pierres, a wind trio.

He settled in Paris in 2003 to study composition, initially with Allain Gaussin, then with Frédéric Durieux at the Paris Conservatoire. Shortly after graduating, he was named a member of the Académie de France à Madrid and offered a 1-year artistic residency at the Casa de Velázquez. Upon returning to France in 2013, he took up teaching positions, initially at the Conservatoire de Cambrai, and later at the Strasbourg Center of the University of Syracuse, and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.

He settled in Strasbourg in 2014. In the mid-2010s his work began to receive much wider attention, receiving major awards, including the Grand Prix du concours Henri Dutilleux. Starting in 2015, he embarked upon an ambitious project of making commercial recordings of all of his works. So far, 3 portrait CDs have been issued along with many individual works on various labels.

Also a poet and writer, Andreyev has published two collection of poems: Evidence was issued in 2009 by Quattro Books of Toronto; The Relativistic Empire was published by Bookthug in 2015. A book of conversations about his life and work, written in collaboration with the French composer and musicologist Etienne Kippelen, will be issued in the fall of 2021.

In 2018, he was named a member of the music council of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. As of 2021, his YouTube channel has over 45,000 subscribers.

Works

• Le malheur adoucit les pierres for b* flute, English horn and b*oon (2002)
• PHP for heckelphone and two pianos (2003 / revised 2011); also version as
• PLP for lupophon and two pianos (2003 / revised 2011)
• Locus Solus for oboe (2003-2005)
• Music with no Edges for five instruments (2004)
• Nombres imaginaires for flute (2004)
• P*ages for clarinet (2005)
• Moving for piccolo oboe, viola and piano (2005–06, revised 2015)
• Stopping for two vibraphones (2006)
• Nets Move Slowly, Yet for ensemble (2006)
• Flex I-III for violin and piano (2006/2010)
• Micrographia for tenor saxophone (2006/2010)
• La Pendule de profil for five instruments (2007–09)
• Night Division for ensemble (2008–10)
• Cinq pièces for flute and percussion (2010)
• Vérifications for ensemble (2012)
• A propos du concert de la semaine dernière for piano and 7 instruments (2013–15)
• Midnight Audition for viola (2013)
• Strasbourg Quartet for flute, clarinet, percussion and cello (2014–15)
• The Flash of the Instant for large orchestra (2014–17)
• Bern Trio for oboe d’amore, viola and harp (2015)
• Movements and Measures for orchestra (2015)
• Piano Pieces I-IV for piano (2011–16)
• Lighting Up for double b* (2016)
• Iridescent Notation cantata on texts by Tom Raworth for soprano and ensemble (2012–17)
• Trois pierres à ne pas jeter concerto for violin and orchestra (2018–20)
• Sextet in Two Parts for b* flute, b*et horn, horn, piano, percussion and cello (2019)
• Piano Pieces V-VIII for piano (2019–20)
• A Line Alone for clarinet d'amore (2020)
• Sonata da Camera for eight instruments (2020–21)
• In Glow of Like Seclusion cantata on texts by J. H. Prynne for soprano and ensemble (2021–22)

Select discography

• Iridescent Notation (Vienna: Kairos Records, 2020)
• Music with no Edges (Vienna: Kairos Records, 2018)
• Moving (Paris: Klarthe Records, 2016)
• Compositeurs de la Casa de Velázquez (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez 2013)
• The Tubular West (Toronto: Torpor Vigil Records 2013)
• Songs of Elsewhere (Toronto: Torpor Vigil Records 2002)
• Swollows (Toronto: Torpor Vigil Records 2000)

References

Sources

• Evidence (Toronto: Quattro Books, 2009)

External links

• Samuel Andreyev's YouTube channel
• Samuel Andreyev's personal web site
• Impronta Edition (Mannheim), publisher of Samuel Andreyev’s music
• Composers 21 page
• Samuel Andreyev's biography on Cdmc website