Andrew Mellor

Andrew Mellor writes about music, architecture and cultural politics for publications around the world. He is author of the award-winning book The Northern Silence and the forthcoming book What We Talk About When We Talk About Opera. He reviews for Gramophone, Opera, Opera Now and the Financial Times, regularly contributes to programme books for the Royal Opera, Glyndebourne and the BBC and has presented live broadcasts for DR and Medici TV. British by birth, he has lived in Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and London and has been resident in Copenhagen since 2015.

By Andrew Mellor

review
23.01

Universal Music with Local Truths

Local traditions play a central role in the second-ever Faroese opera, in which Sunleif Rasmussen reclaims a local story made famous by Wagner.

By Andrew Mellor
in brief
29.10

Islands Of Sound Rising From the Sea

Veroníque Vaka turns monumental geological forces into beguiling music.

By Andrew Mellor
in brief
29.09

A Seedy Hotel Room Becomes the Stage For Lives, Traumas, and Music

Emma O’Halloran transforms Mark O’Halloran’s words into intimate, musical narratives, where theatre and vocal artistry merge.

By Andrew Mellor
review
26.05

An Operatic Vision Lost in Translation

Bent Sørensen’s new operatic collaboration with Jon Fosse falls short of what it might have been.

By Andrew Mellor
review
01.04

From Factory Floor to Operatic Frustration

Jenny Wilson’s first opera – an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s »Women as Lovers« – delivers sharp theatricality and biting satire but struggles to find its musical voice.

By Andrew Mellor
interview
08.03.2021

‘We don’t have the same aspirations at all’

Guitarist Mikkel Schou prefers the brand-new music composed today; his upcoming Debut Concert is a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to institutional forces of habit.

By Andrew Mellor
essay
23.11.2020

A song of one’s own

American composer Caroline Shaw drew criticism because she profited on Inuit throat singing, according to singer Tanya Tagaq.

By Andrew Mellor
review
26.10.2020

One man, one mission

Mathias Monrad Møller showed us an exciting creative vision at his official debut concert as singer and composer – a vision overshadowing dull questions of mere skill.

By Andrew Mellor
interview
02.06.2020

‘I wanted to be radical’

Instruments struggle to voice themselves in the music of Christian Winther Christensen. His focus on small sounds and deep concentration is a perfect match for a time of silenced soundscapes.

By Andrew Mellor
essay
26.03.2020

Nature won’t protect you anymore

Nature seems to have turned on us. That shows in Nordic contemporary music with sonic tales of decay, apocalypse, and protest.

By Andrew Mellor
review
25.02.2020

A difficult beast to tame

With ‘Víddir’, a 60-minute composition of light and darkness, the Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir demonstrated the breadth of her imagination.

By Andrew Mellor
interview
13.02.2020

‘Things are very anarchistic right now’

Neko3 is one of the most visionary ensembles at a moment where the contemporary music scene is changing rapidly.

By Andrew Mellor