"To hold together a performance like this and make it fun for performers and listeners is a rare gift."
-Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star

"Ultimately it was the youthful vitality of Anderson that made this performance click."
-Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star

"Andy Anderson's conducting drew the ears into the story."
-Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star

"Music Director Andy Anderson set an authoritative tone with the orchestra, coaxing a rich, full sound from his players."
-Robert Eisele, Kansas City Star

“The music was wonderful and included a welcome number of marvelous orchestral interludes, played with passion by the Civic Orchestra under the direction of Andy Anderson.”
-Timothy McDonald, Johnson County Sun

“I heard a blend between soloist and orchestra that was as fine as you get in any theater in Kansas City.”
-Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star

“The concerto’s central slow movement was particularly sensitive and lyrical, and the orchestra, under the direction of Andy Anderson, responded well to the soloists songlike approach.”
-Timothy McDonald, Johnson County Sun

Andy Anderson, has been Music Director of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra since 2001,

He is the founder and conductor of the Kansas City Puccini Festival. Now in its seventh year, this all-volunteer festival draws musicians from several states to rehearse and perform a Puccini opera in concert. On May 21, 2005, the festival performed Turandot which earned rave reviews. In December of the same year, the Kansas City Star listed the Kansas City Puccini Festival as one of the “top 15 classical music and dance events in 2005.”  In May of 2006 the festival performed Il trittico, again to critical acclaim.  The festival will celebrate its eighth season in 2007 with Tosca.

Mr. Anderson is the Artistic Director of the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City. Recent productions with Civic Opera include Weill’s Street Scene, Verdi’s Falstaff, Sondheim’s Passion, A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol, and Puccini’s Edgar.  Future productions will include Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, Puccini’s La bohéme, Menotti’s The Medium and the world premier of Music on the Waters by John Mueter.

Recent performance highlights have included the North American premiere of The Queen Symphony by Tolga Kashif with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, La bohème with Rimrock Opera (Billings Montana) and Handel’s Messiah with the St. Joseph Symphony (MO).  As a cover conductor, Mr. Anderson has been on the podium of the Kansas City Symphony.

Mr. Anderson's other opera credits include Madama Butterfly, Le nozze di Figaro, Manon Lescaut, Edgar, La traviata, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Ariadne auf Naxos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Il tabarro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Amahl and the Night Visitors and La bohéme.

Andy Anderson Conducts the Kansas City Civic Orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No. 1, March 2, 2002

Mr. Anderson completed course work for a Doctorate degree and earned a Masters of Music in orchestral conducting at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music under the direction of Dr. Robert Olson. While at the Conservatory of Music UMKC, Mr. Anderson held the opera conducting assistantship for four years. 2006 marks Anderson's eighth year as the assistant conductor of the Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder, Colorado and he held the same post for three seasons with the Kansas City Ballet. In May 2000 Mr. Anderson was given the prestigious Muriel McBrien Kauffman Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award by the Conservatory of Music at UMKC. In August of that same year Anderson joined the Production staff of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Prior to coming to Kansas City, Mr. Anderson was the assistant conductor of the Natchitoches – Northwestern Symphony Orchestra in his home state of Louisiana.  

Mr. Anderson is represented by Ovation! Management, Chicago. IL