Andrew Beer

Violinist Andrew Beer has been hailed as a “virtuoso soloist” by San Francisco Classical Voice, praised for his “glorious string tone” by The Strad, and celebrated as a “musical gift” by The New York Times. His NZ-premiere performance of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto was lauded as “a consummate performance” and “one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a while” by Radio New Zealand.

An internationally acclaimed artist, Andrew has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls across Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. His performances have been broadcast globally on platforms such as NHK Japan, Medici TV, CBC Radio-Canada, WQXR New York, RNZ Concert, ABC Classic and OperaVision. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at renowned festivals including Music@Menlo, Prussia Cove, Banff, Orford, Domaine Forget, Tanglewood, and Aspen.

Since 2014, Andrew has proudly performed as Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia. He has also been invited as guest concertmaster by leading orchestras worldwide, including the SSO (Singapore), CBSO (Birmingham), Hallé (Manchester), MSO (Melbourne), ASO (Adelaide), VSO (Vancouver), Opera North (Leeds), and NZSO (Wellington).

A versatile and adventurous musician, Andrew has a deep passion for contemporary music, having worked closely with leading composers including Pierre Boulez, Mario Davidovsky, György Kurtág and Steve Reich. His commitment to New Zealand’s vibrant musical landscape is evident in his debut CD, 11 Frames, recorded with pianist Sarah Watkins, which features works by 11 leading NZ composers. The album earned them the title of “Best Classical Artist of the Year” at the NZ (Aotearoa) Music Awards. Andrew recently gave the world premiere of Dame Gillian Whitehead’s Violin Concerto, Tai timu tai pari, with the NZ Herald praising him as a “fully validated virtuoso.”

Always embracing new repertoire, Andrew's recent performances of concertos by Marsalis, Szymanowski, Ligeti, Conus, Sinding, and Harrison have won critical acclaim.

Andrew is a founding member of Aotango, an NZ-based quintet specializing in tango and world music. Aotango has toured extensively throughout Aotearoa and China, with their performance at the 2024 Shanghai Spring Festival livestreamed to over 600,000 viewers. The ensemble also recently released their debut CD.

Andrew also founded the Levansa Piano Trio, which recently released its debut album featuring works by Eastern European composers. Levansa will soon record their second CD, an album featuring NZ composers.

A Carnegie Hall and Juilliard School fellow, Andrew holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and Stony Brook University. He has served on the selection panel of every Michael Hill International Violin Competition since 2015. Before joining the Auckland Philharmonia, Andrew was Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Grammy-winning Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) from 2008 to 2014.

Andrew performs on a J.B. Vuillaume violin (1845) and a Nicolas Maire bow (1855).