Bio
Andrew Noseworthy (he/him/his) is a multidisciplinary artist whose music reflects upon the acceptance/rejection of “locality” while drawing from lived experiences of isolation within his hometown of Labrador West and the tight-knit arts community of St John's (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada), along with the expansive post-genre scenes of New York City. His work addresses ideas of post-regional spaces and questions of accessibility for the musical voices within them.
Andrew’s creative work coalesces wide-ranging styles and distinct artistic practices. His genre-fluid projects include compositions for contemporary music ensembles (often with electronics); performing with hardcore and experimental rock bands in DIY venues; commissioning and premiering new works involving the electric guitar; music for dance and experimental film; pop music production and audio engineering; and integrative work that combines seemingly disparate elements from any number of these settings. His artistic intentions are focused on building sustainable relationships through communal collaboration. This includes previous and ongoing collaborations with artists and organizations such as The Metropolis Ensemble, The 21C Guitar Conference, Angie Moon Dance Theatre, Saman Shahi, India Gailey, Yang Chen, Tim Brady/Bradyworks, Phong Tran, Adam Cuthbért, SlowPitchSound, Greg Bruce, The St John’s International Sound Symposium, Bekah Simms, Tanea Hynes, Andrea Lodge, Din of Shadows, The Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival and NA2 Dance Theater.
With Yaz Lancaster, Andrew is the co-founder of laydøwn, a post-genre project that creates new works for violin and electric guitar with electronics as well as original pop songs and covers. With Aeryn Santillan, he is the co-founder of experimental hardcore duo this place is actually the worst and independent digital label people | places | records; both projects that connect communities existing in the “new music” and “hardcore/electronic” realms. In 2019 Andrew joined the Toronto-based ensemble Contaqt in time for performances that included Brian Eno's Discreet Music at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, as well as new arrangements of music by Bowie/Eno/Fripp/Budd with Evan Ziporyn at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Intersection in Toronto.
Through his work as an educator, Andrew strives to foster equitable spaces for community and collaboration. His engagements span over a decade of private guitar, theory, and composition teaching; distance and outreach learning; adjudicating; university-level theory, ear-training, and electronic music positions; and frequently guest lecturing at festivals, workshops, and academic courses. Focusing on transparent and open communication among students, Andrew provides them with support, guidance, and relevant skills to pursue their own interests or goals. In 2020, Andrew was an instrumental and composition tutor for Go Compose! North America. In 2021, he joined the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in teaching courses on the electric guitar in contemporary classical music. He has been a faculty member at Community Music Schools of Toronto since 2022.
Andrew’s previous mentors include Paul Frehner, Michael Gordon, Andrew Staniland and Sylvie Proulx. He holds degrees from Western University (PhD), NYU Steinhardt (MM), and Memorial University (Bmus, honours). His PhD dissertation work involved the creation of a new electric guitar concerto with modular performance settings, while his research examined the transference of experiences between composer-performer roles and genre concerns regarding the electric guitar in contemporary music.
Photo by Yaz Lancaster