Biography
From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M. degree in piano performance.
One of the least internationally known of British minimalist composers, Poppy was a founding member (in 1981) of The Lost Jockey, a large ensemble dedicated to the performance of new works by British composers composed in the style of such composers as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Louis Andriessen.
His first solo album The Beating of Wings was released on ZTT records in 1985, and the follow-up Alphabed (A Mystery Dance) in 1987. His third album for ZTT (Under the Son) was scheduled for release in 1988, but he left the label that year and most of its material appeared only in 2005 as part of a 3-CD collection of Poppy's ZTT works entitled Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb. The collection comprised three tracks from Under the Son as well as the first two ZTT albums, some of whose tracks appeared in versions slightly different to their initial album appearances, as well as in 12" remixes.
He contributed orchestral arrangements to Force The Hand of Chance, the first album by the group Psychic TV which was released on WEA Records in 1982. Poppy's subsequent arrangements have appeared on records by groups such as Coil, Erasure, The The, The House of Love, Strawberry Switchblade and Nitzer Ebb.
In 1986, Andrew Poppy composed the original score for Portuguese seminal 80's film A Girl In Summer directed by Vítor Gonçalves.
On June 9th 2011, Poppy's early 1990s orchestra and live electronics work Revolution No. 8: Airport for Joseph Beuys featured as one of the works in Electronica III at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, the final event in a series of BBC Concert Orchestra concerts showcasing contemporary music and electronica.
A collaboration between Poppy and German singer Claudia Brücken (another ZTT artist in the 1980s who recorded with Propaganda and Act) resulted in the album Another Language in 2005. On this sparsely scored album of cover songs Poppy's piano playing accompanied Brücken's vocals.
Poppy's style occupies a place between classical minimalism, Postminimalism and more popular genres, although individual pieces are not necessarily overtly minimalist. A wide range of ensembles have commissioned and/or performed his works at prestigious musical festivals including Noszferatu Ensemble and the Graham Fitkin Band.
Poppy teaches composition at Trinity College of Music in Greenwich, London.
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