Andrew van der Beek
- Actor
Andrew van der Beek studied at University College London, where he
spent much time organising concerts and graduated in geology and
physics. He then worked for a few years as a scientific journalist and
editor. During this time - the early seventies - he became fascinated
by the wind instruments of the Renaissance, an interest that grew from
an early liking for Tudor church music, which he had sung as a boy. He
taught himself to play the bass members of the crumhorn, racket,
recorder, curtal and sackbut family and began to play in several
professional ensembles. At a weekend course at Dartington Hall he was
fortunate enough to meet David Munrow, who invited him to play and
record with the Early Music Consort of London. Two serpent players -
Christopher Monk and Alan Lumsden - suggested that he learnt to play
the instrument so that they could form a trio. In a characteristic act
of generosity, Christopher Monk lent him a fine military serpent by
Francis Pretty of London, circa 1830. The London Serpent Trio
subsequently performed widely in Britain and Europe and made three
concert tours of North America. More recently he has performed as a
guest serpent player with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia,
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden and John Eliot Gardener's Orchestre
Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
In the late seventies he began promoting early music concerts and courses in London. Through this activity he became involved with the work of Bruno Turner, the scholar and conductor who had founded the publishing house Mapa Mundi, specialising in editions of Spanish renaissance church music. Throughout the eighties he presented numerous concerts featuring these editions at St John's, Smith Square, often large-scale events featuring choirs, solo singers and instrumental ensembles.
In 1988 he moved from London to the Wiltshire village of Lacock and founded the Lacock Summer School. The demand to attend the Lacock course has steadily increased and now there are events organised under the Lacock umbrella throughout the year and in a variety of countries: Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.
His interests outside music include anything to do with Mediterranean Europe. He is a director of the Centre for Albanian Studies, an independent non-political research institute set up under the scholar Bejtullah Destani on the death of Dervish Duma in 1998. It works in cooperation with the Nash Albanian Studies Programme of University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
In the late seventies he began promoting early music concerts and courses in London. Through this activity he became involved with the work of Bruno Turner, the scholar and conductor who had founded the publishing house Mapa Mundi, specialising in editions of Spanish renaissance church music. Throughout the eighties he presented numerous concerts featuring these editions at St John's, Smith Square, often large-scale events featuring choirs, solo singers and instrumental ensembles.
In 1988 he moved from London to the Wiltshire village of Lacock and founded the Lacock Summer School. The demand to attend the Lacock course has steadily increased and now there are events organised under the Lacock umbrella throughout the year and in a variety of countries: Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.
His interests outside music include anything to do with Mediterranean Europe. He is a director of the Centre for Albanian Studies, an independent non-political research institute set up under the scholar Bejtullah Destani on the death of Dervish Duma in 1998. It works in cooperation with the Nash Albanian Studies Programme of University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
