Andrew Downes' commissions have included: The Marshes of Glynn for the Royal opening of the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham in 1986; Centenary Firedances for the City of Birmingham’s Centenary Festival of Fireworks and Music; an Overture for the Three Choirs Festival; songs for ‘Cantamus’ Girls’ Choir; song cycles for mezzo-soprano Sarah Walker and tenor John Mitchinson for broadcast on BBC Radio 3; anthems for the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service; Sonata for 8 Horns for the Horn Octet of the University of New Mexico; Suite for 6 Horns for the Vienna Horn Society; Song of the Eagle for the James Madison University Flute Choir of Virginia; Concerto for Two Pianos for the Duo Scaramouche; Sonata for 8 Pianists for soloists from France, Italy and Britain; Mela Kamavardhani for performances by Indo-Jazz Fusions in Calcutta, Delhi and Bombay; Fanfare for Madam Speaker, for the Installation of the Rt Hon Betty Boothroyd MP as Chancellor of the Open University; Concerto for Two Guitars for Simon Dinnigan and Fred T.Baker with Strings from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Concert Overture ‘Towards a New Age’ for the 150th anniversary of the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, premiered in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; and Suite for Brass Sextet for the Czech Philharmonic Brass Sextet. In January 1989 Andrew Downes visited Israel to attend a performance of his Sonata for Two Pianos by Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir in the Israel Philharmonic Guest House.  Eden and Tamir came to Birmingham in January 1990 to perform the work in a concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  In November 1993 Downes conducted the Crane Concert Choir in the University of New York's Hosmer Hall in a performance of his St Luke Passion. In 1994 he attended, at the Calcutta School of Music, a performance of his Sonata for Violin and Piano by Calcutta born violinist, John Mayer; and he revisited India in February 1996 for performances by 'Indo-Jazz Fusions' of his composition, Mela Kamavardhani, in Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi.  In March 1995 he was invited by the University of New Mexico to give talks and to attend the performances of several of his works, and especially his Sonata for 8 Horns commissioned by the University Horn Octet.  In October and November 1995 he heard in Paris performances of his Sonata for Two Pianos  by the 'Duo Scaramouche', including a performance on French Radio, 'France Musique'.  In March 1996 he was interviewed on Italian Television before a broadcast performance of the Sonata for Two Pianos by the 'Duo Scaramouche' from Barletta. In the Summer of 1996 he attended a performance of his Sonata for 8 Horns at the International Horn Convention in Oregon and the first performance of his Sonata for 8 Flutes at the National Flute Association's annual Convention in New York. This latter work has since been performed at numerous venues throughout the USA, Australia and Japan and also in Caracas by the National Flute Orchestra of Venezuela, as well as at a special Flute Day in Birmingham devoted to it and at the Stratford International Flute Festival. In January 1998 he made a trip to Vienna to hear Sonata for 4 Horns performed by the Vienna Horn Society; and to Prague for a performance in the Rudolphinium of his Sonata for 8 Horns by the Horns of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The Czech Philharmonic Horns played this Sonata again in Prague's Lichtenstein Palace in August 1998 and have recorded the work for Czech Radio and for CD.  A performance in the Dvorak Hall is planned. New York Metropolitan Opera Soloist, Patricia Blythe, performed Andrew Downes' Songs from Spoon River at the Tanglewood Festival in August 1994.  A series of recordings of Downes' works has been broadcast on Central Peking Radio and the China Film Philharmonic Orchestra have requested copies of several of his orchestral works, while in Japan 'Cantamus' Girls' Choir gave performances of Piano by Andrew Downes during their concert tour in 1994. Andrew Downes' Concert Overture: 'Towards a New Age' commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, was premičred in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on 28th January 1997 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Constantine. As a result of the success of the CD recording of his Sonata for 8 Horns by the Horns of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew was commissioned to compose a Concerto for 4 Horns and Orchestra for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, who gave two performances of the work in the Dvorak Hall, Prague, in February and March 2002. In March 2003, the work was recorded by Czech Radio, and will be broadcast in the near future.   Andrew will return to Prague next year to hear a performance by the Czech Philharmonic Horns of his 5 Dramatic Pieces for 8 Wagner Tubas. Recent projects include Songs of Autumn, commissioned by Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and first performed by 1200 schoolchildren and players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, in October 2003, and an opera, Far from the Madding Crowd, to be premiered at the Thomas Hardy Festival in 2006. Faber Music have recently requested the inclusion of Andrew Downes’ motet O Vos Omnes in a forthcoming compilation of works entitled Thirty Choral Masterworks for Upper Voices. For full details of all Andrew Downes’ music, including critical appraisals and sound samples, visit: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~downlyn A full list of Andrew Downes' music is provided Catalogue and also a  [Discography] Publisher LYNWOOD MUSIC: 2, Church Street, West Hagley, West Midlands DY9 0NA  tel: 01562 886625