Andrew Cyr

Artistic Director

“Some months ago I was fortunate to hear a concert played by the Metropolis Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Cyr, in New York. I greatly enjoyed Mr. Cyr's conducting. It was precise, rhythmically incisive and fluid. He made complex new pieces sound natural and organic. What a pleasure it is to hear new music played with the same kind of panache and bravura we usually experience only in performances of standard repertoire.”

—Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director,
Los Angeles Philharmonic

Conductor and organist Andrew Cyr is a leader in every aspect of the rapidly growing urban contemporary classical music scene. Engaging a new model of Music Director-as-communicator-and-conduit, Cyr successfully attracts young, diverse audiences for classical music through intimate concerts, passionate performances, education initiatives, grassroots community events, and a natural application of digital media and marketing. Cyr commissions, premiers and records new works from the freshest voices in classical composition, including Timothy Andres, David Bruce, Jakub Ciupinski, Avner Dorman, Ryan Francis, Ryan Gallagher, Raymond Lustig, Ricardo Romaneiro, Cristina Spinei, and Michael Ward-Bergeman. Born out of his enthusiasm for connecting young musicians and composers with their contemporaries in other fields, Cyr's Metropolis Ensemble, founded in 2006, comprises some of the finest chamber musicians and soloists in New York City.

As a music director, Cyr is dedicated to programming the music of 20th century greats such as John Adams, Stravinsky, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ravel, Shostakovich, Satie, Britten, Osvaldo Golijov, Copland, Virgil Thomson, Kurt Weill and David Schiff. Cyr's repertoire as organist spans from the Baroque masterpieces of Bach and Couperin, to the great Romantic and Modern works of Franck, Widor, Tournemire and Messiaen. Additionally, Cyr has collaborated with a number of artists who defy classification, including mandolinist Avi Avital, pianists Eliran Avni, Steve Beck, and Anna Polonsky, vocal artists Hai-Ting Chin, Kiera Duffy, Daniel Neer, Melissa Fogarty, and Hila Plitmann, flutist Mindy Kaufman, violinists Arnaud Sussmann and Lily Francis, and jazz saxophonist Marty Ehrlich. He has worked and appeared with the L'Orchestre National Des Pays de la Loire, France, D'Angers Nantes Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, Masterworks Chorus, Westminster Symphonic Choir, and Rutgers University Opera, among others.

In their most recent appearance, Cyr and the Metropolis Ensemble were presented by Celebrate Brooklyn and The Wordless Music Series alongside indie rock sensation Deerhoof, performing to an audience of over 10,000 in a groundbreaking outdoor concert in Prospect Park. This newly commissioned The Rite: Remixed was featured in a live web-cast on NPR, in addition to a local primetime broadcast on WNYC.

Cyr's debut as recording artist will feature the chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman and was recently made in collaboration with the Grammy-winner and Classical Producer of the Year (2005) David Frost. The album is set for international release in 2009 and was the subject of the American Society for Composers and Performers Audio Portrait in July of 2008.

A native of Maine and resident of New York City, Cyr studied trumpet with Jules Modat at the French National Conservatory (Etudes supérieures), organ with Dr. Marion Anderson at Bates College, Pierre Grandmaison of the Basilique de Notre-Dame, Montreal, Stefan Engels of the Hochschule fur Musik and Theater, and Harvey Burgett, St. Thomas More Church, choral conducting with Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt and Dr. Andrew Megill of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ, and orchestral conducting with Kynan Johns of Rutgers University and Kenneth Kiesler of the University of Michigan. He has served as lecturer in conducting at Rutgers University and as Assistant Organist for the Church of St. Thomas More, New York City and the Basilique de Notre-Dame, Montreal, and is currently the Titular Organist at Our Lady of Grace Church and a member of the adjunct music faculty at St. David's School, a distinguished private school in Manhattan.

Photo by Joanna Williams