Andrew Thayer was born in Cardiff in 1980. He studied BMus at Royal Holloway (University of London). He continued with postgraduate performance in Birmingham Conservatoire, where he received a PGDip and MA. His teachers have included James Kirby, Victor Sangiorgio and John Humphreys. In later years, he has also worked on a number of occasions with Alan Fraser, of the “Craft of Piano” method.

Awards include the 2004 Sylvia Cleaver Chamber Music Prize as a member of the ‘Trio Gustav’. In 2005 he was awarded the Renna Kellaway Piano Prize, as well as the John Ireland Prize. He was also a finalist in the Symphony Hall Competition, Birmingham. In 2015 he was invited by the Scriabin association, to perform in an event marking the 2015 centenary of the composer’s death. In 2018, he also gave an hour-long recital within Birmingham’s New Street Station, which closed two days of performances (as part of the CBSO Debussy Festival).

Musically, he takes great interest in historic recordings of such “Golden Age” pianists as Ervin Nyiregyhazi, Vladimir Horowitz, Alfred Cortot and  Sergei Rachmaninoff. He is particularly keen on the traditions of the romantic era and enjoys analysis of the ideals behind “freer” approaches to musical performance. Following work with Alan Fraser, however, he also began to specialise in the study of technique. His blog ‘Mechanically-informed Practical Piano Technique’ is based around applying extremely rational analysis, in order to model the relationship between hand and arm. This is blended with sensory-based exercises (inspired by the principles of the “Feldenkrais Method), to help develop the ‘feel’ behind musical shaping and control. Since 2023 he has begun producing a series of video lectures on YouTube.