Andrew Baird has had a long and diverse career in the Music industry. An electrical engineer by training with a first class degree from the University of Cape Town, he took up music with the Merton Barrow Music School in Africa's jazz capital Cape Town during his studies, continuing his music studies with classical piano legend Anne Beck on his return to Zimbabwe. Among other things, Andrew spent more than five years with Zimbabwean based Celebration Church, building their music department and record label, Hear the Music. At the same time he was piecing together his own recording studio and gaining experience from some of Zimbabwe’s top recording engineers, including Rick Griebno, Kelly Rusike and others.
In September 2005, Gorilla Music was officially birthed and Andrew had attained his dream of becoming a producer and studio proprietor. His discography so far boasts some impressive names and he has written and co-written several chart topping hits including, “Our Zimbabwe” by Henry Olonga and “Tambira” by Celebration Choir.
In 2005 he was nominated for ZIMA (Zimbabwe Music Awards) producer of the year, and the Celebration Choir was nominated for a Kora Award for the song “Tambira”. His songs have also reached the top of the national charts in surrounding nations Botswana , Kenya and South Africa . Early 2009 Andrew moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where he teamed up with writer Colin Vincent to form Orangotang Music, the sister company to Gorilla Music. Their studio, based in Cresta, will soon be servicing the South African advertising and movie industries.
Andrew has scored soundtracks to 2 movies so far: “The Legend of the Sky Kingdom” and “Once Upon A Stable”. Both movies were produced and distributed by Cape Town based Sunrise Productions. He has recently produced the soundtrack to a wildlife documentary titled “Bundu Boyz” which currently airs on the National Geographic channel, as well as “Big 5 Challenge” which airs on Animal Planet in 2009
Click here to book your place at the Zimnandi Zeminar where Andrew will be teaching this Saturday
