Andrew Penny

Andrew Penny was born in Hull and entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1971 to study the clarinet with Sidney Fell. As a postgraduate he was the first holder of the Rothschild Scholarship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Sir Charles Groves and Timothy Reynish subsequently receiving the Ricordi Prize. He also studied with Sir Edward Downes on courses in Holland and at the BBC Conductors Seminar in 1985. 

Since 1992 he has made over 70 recordings for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels. Much of the repertoire is of British Music and includes symphonies by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Havergal Brian, film music by Vaughan Williams and Walton, theatre music by Sullivan and German and light music by Coates, Joyce, Duncan and Arnold.

His complete cycle of the nine symphonies by Arnold was reissued last year to mark Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Centenary. He contributed to four podcasts broadcast about Arnold from various parts of the world and appeared in Simon Heffer’s documentary on the composer for Radio 3 in October.

Andrew Penny was on the Instrumental Music Staff at Hymers College since 1977 and was the Musical Director of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra since 1982, retiring from both positions in 2022. He was awarded the MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2014.

Andrew is delighted to have been elected a Trustee of the Light Music Society and is looking forward to increasing national and international awareness of the incredible resource that is our library.