Making my music is more than a job for me; it’s my passion and calling in life. I spend every minute of every day thinking about, listening to, teaching or writing music. I need to though because I have to constantly find new ways to reach and energise my audiences and students and this is something that I love doing; energising people so that they feel that they’ve been hooked up to a huge battery and can forget about their problems and worries for a few hours. If music is the soundtrack to life and love then write me into the score! Andy Firth, clarinet, sax, arranger, composer and educator.

 

Listen to a sample of his music

 

 

For me, music is the language that defines humanity. It describes the diversity of culture, it expresses our emotions beyond words and it challenges our creativity. There is no other medium in creation that offers so much. Music has the power to connect people and allow them to share a common feeling or expression, whether it be two people or fifty thousand. It bonds us in a primal way that has been with homo-sapiens before we had even the simplest form of written language. Playing music allows us to be a teacher and student at the same time. Although I enjoy all styles of music, jazz is the genre that calls me. The uplifting feeling of swing and the challenge of improvised performance is food for the soul and through all our differences in age, gender, race, religion, rich or poor, for that one beautiful moment, we are all one. We are on common ground. Someone once asked me what life would be like without music to which my only thought was “There isn’t life without music”.