About Andy Mitchell
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Andy Mitchell is a composer, performer, and teacher. He began playing guitar at age 9, and started his formal training on classical guitar at age 11, studying privately with Frank Koonce, classical guitar professor and department head at Arizona State University. Andy was accepted into the Peabody Conservatory of Music and studied there under merit scholarship, where he went on to earn his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, studying with Nathaniel Gunod and Julian Gray.
Though his focus was on classical guitar performance, Andy began to feel that he wanted to do more with the guitar than perform. He found inspiration and encouragement from his contact with composer/guitarist Andrew York, and, despite his degree focus, was allowed to study composition at Peabody with composer Dr. Chen Yi. Again, despite his performance degree, he was encouraged in his composing by Julian Gray and permitted to premiere one of his compositions, “March of the Ants,” during his Masters recital in 1997.
After Peabody, Andy focused on teaching and performing. He composed during his spare time, and in 1999, had composed seven compositions for guitar. He recorded these on his first album, "Chimaera," but still avoided performing his own work. "Performing my own music is more challenging than playing the works of other composers," Andy says, "because I'm double-representing myself. If I make a mistake, I don't want my audience to think that I wrote it that way!"
In recent years, Andy has begun to perform his music in public more often. In 2007, he played eight of his compositions in a concert for the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society. He has included several of his works in other concerts that he has given through Artists Representation International, and has performed some of his work at various colleges in his home state of Maryland. Andy has also sold his composition scores through Kirkpatrick Guitar and his music has found its way into the hands of a variety of guitarists, both classical and rock. His compositions have been performed live on public radio and recorded by other artists. "I hope that guitarists from any style will enjoy playing and listening to my music," Andy states, expressing the desire for his music not to be thought of as "classical," but as music for the solo guitar.