The composer and jazz pianist Andy Quin has been writing for de Wolfe Music for more than 30 years. Over the past three decades, his music has featured in Hollywood movies, global advertising campaigns and countless television programmes.
Born in London in 1960, Quin began playing the piano at the age of four. Unlike many ‘child prodigies,’ he was not from a musical family. Having been offered a scholarship to study classical piano at the Royal College of Music, he turned down the place in order to pursue his growing interests in improvisation, composition and music technology. By his early teens, he was accompanying silent movies, drumming in a rock band and regularly performing professional gigs.
Quin went on to study at Keele University, Staffordshire, where his final year dissertation was on the music of Earth Wind and Fire. He graduated in Music and Electronics, having worked extensively with BAFTA-winning de Wolfe composer Tim Souster, as well as continuing his jazz interests with Cecil Lytle.
While at Keele Quin became a pioneer of digital music, sampling with the world’s first computer musical instrument: the Fairlight CMI. In 1984, James de Wolfe commissioned him to make his first LP, Mirage, which was re-released the following year as DWCD 0001 - the first CD of the world’s first music library.
As he broadened his musical output for de Wolfe, dozens of albums of orchestral, jazz, piano, synth and small group music followed. Having conducted and worked with many of the finest recording orchestras and musicians, Quin now has well over one thousand published tracks.
Michael Jordan 'Air Time' ft. Up Market by Andy Quin
OXO Family
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Quin was a regular composer for Central Television. He provided theme music to some of their best known productions, including Central Weekend, It Shouldn’t Happen To A.... and Something To Treasure. He also worked with leading directors, such as Mike Figgis and Terence Donovan, on adverts for some of the world’s top brands: Nike, Volkswagen, Disney, BirdsEye, BA, Nestle, Persil and Nissan. Some of these adverts have become regarded as all-time classics such as OXO Family and After Eight: Perfect Dinner Party.
After Eight - Perfect Dinner Party
Mon Guerlain
With over 30 years at the top of the business, vast numbers of syncs each year, numerous award nominations and many other artists sampling and remixing his work, Andy Quin is one of the most successful and prolific production music composers in the world. His music can be heard everywhere from concert halls to theme parks, children’s TV to Hollywood blockbusters, you will almost certainly have heard his compositions wherever you live around the globe.
Recent productions to have used his compositions include: Boardwalk Empire, Trumbo, Definitely Maybe, Nancy Drew, Ab Fab The Movie, Supernatural, Never Forever, Better Call Saul, the trailer to Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder and Barbie: Imagine The Possibilities which won YouTube ad of the year 2015.
Quin's pride and joy is a 9ft concert grand piano, handmade for him by the Estonia Piano Factory, but his recording studio is also home to a number of interesting and unusual, ethnic and vintage instruments. Within his collection is a small pipe organ and a pristine vintage valve Hammond. Andy Quin continues to perform internationally, giving recitals on both piano and organ, as well as accompanying silent movies and giving lectures and masterclasses on jazz and composing.