Andrew Norman is a composer of chamber and orchestral music. Born in the Midwest and raised in central California, Andrew spent seven years in Los Angeles where, among other activities, he watched Walt Disney Concert Hall take shape while ushering at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He is thrilled to have his music performed here by members of the Philharmonic both this season and next.

A graduate of the University of Southern California and Yale, Norman counts among his teachers and mentors Martha Ashleigh, Donald Crockett, Stephen Hartke, Stewart Gordon, Aaron Kernis, Ingram Marshall, and Martin Bresnick. In recent seasons Norman has been commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Los Angeles and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Aspen Music Festival. He has been a fellow at the American Academies in Rome and Berlin, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Copland House. Norman recently finished a two-year residency with Young Concert Artists in New York, and he will be composer-in-residence for the city of Heidelberg next season. Norman is a committed educator who enjoys helping people of all ages explore and create music, and his works are published by Schott.

The composer has written the following note about Gran Turismo:

“Rewind my life to 2003 and you might find a particular week when I was researching the art of Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla for a term paper, watching my roommates play a car racing video game called Gran Turismo, and thinking about the legacy of Baroque string virtuosity as a point of departure for my next project. It didn’t take long before the resonances between these different activities became clear, and it was out of their unexpected convergence that this piece was born.”