Andrew Marriner held the position of principal clarinet in the London Symphony Orchestra from1986 to 2019, having succeeded the late Jack Brymer in that post. During his orchestral career Andrew maintained a presence on the worldwide solo concert platform, in the field of chamber music, and as a teacher.

Andrew first played with the LSO in 1977 under Sergiu Celibidache and, as guest principal, on the orchestra’s 1983 world tour. He later became principal clarinet of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a position he held concurrently with his commitment to the LSO until 2008.

As a soloist Andrew has been a regular performer in London, both at the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. As both performer and teacher, his career is worldwide in its reach, taking him regularly from Europe to the Americas, Asia and Australia.

Throughout his career, Andrew has performed with chamber ensembles around the world, including the Chilingirian, Lindsay, Endellion, Moscow, Warsaw, Orlando, Saccone and Belcea string quartets, as well as being a member of the LSO’s chamber ensemble. He has performed with some of the most distinguished figures in the world of chamber music, among them Alfred Brendel, André Previn, Andras Schiff, Lynn Harrell, Stephen Isserlis, Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, Sylvia McNair and Edita Gruberova, as well as the late Vlado Perlemuter and George Malcolm.

Highlights of Andrew’s career include many performances over the years with his father, Sir Neville Marriner, both as soloist and as a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Among his many traversals of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto are particularly memorable performances at the Musikverein in Vienna; at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, with Sir Colin Davis conducting; with Sir Neville conducting at Teatro la Fenice, Venice in 2009; and in concerts with Mstislav Rostropovich and Sir Antonio Pappano conducting.

Andrew has given the world premières of several works written for him by Sir John Tavener, Robin Holloway, Dominic Muldowney and Douglas Weiland. For Andrew, the LSO commissioned from Tavener The Repentant Thief for clarinet, percussion and strings. Andrew premiered the work with the LSO and recorded it in 1990 with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting, subsequently introducing it in New York. In 1997, he played the first performances of Holloway’s Clarinet Concerto, written to celebrate the 1400th anniversary of The King’s School, Canterbury, and Muldowney’s Clarinet Concerto at that year’s Oxford Contemporary Music Festival. In Australia, Andrew premiered Weiland’s new concerto with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

In 1989, Andrew was featured in performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, with the composer conducting, in London, Paris and Berlin. For the Finzi centenary in 2001, he was soloist in the composer’s clarinet concerto in a commemorative concert at the Royal Festival Hall. Also of note were performances of Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie with the LSO at the Barbican, with Michael Tilson Thomas and Valery Gergiev, and the Duett-Concertino of Richard Strauss, with Gergiev and Okku Kamu.