Andrew Carwood has had an unusual career, as he is one of the few professional artists active today to combine choral singing with a career as a soloist, as well as conducting his own internationally renowned ensemble. He has sung in the choirs of St. John's College, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford and Westminster Cathedral, and was appointed director of Brompton Oratory Choir in 1995.

Andrew Carwood has been a member of ensembles of such renown as The Tallis Scholars, the Orlando Consort, the Oxford Camerata, The Parley of Instruments and Pro Cantione Antiqua. He is also known as a soloist, having worked with conductors such as Harry Christophers, Philippe Herreweghe, Robert King and Christopher Hogwood. Gramophone magazine has described him as "possessing a magnificent voice". He performs baroque repertoire as well as 20th. century works, having recorded the first performance of Christopher Headington's "The Healing Fountain" with the Britten Sinfonia. He has recorded CDs of works by Hassler, Vivaldi, Warlock, Howells, Poulenc and others, and future plans include solo performances in Bach's St. Matthew Passion on a European tour with Roger Norrington, the B Minor Mass in Singapore, or the Monteverdi Vespers and Scarlatti's St. John Passion with Harry Christophers. Plans for performances of contemporary music include the "Earth, Sweet Earth" songs of Kenneth Leighton and Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.

As a conductor, Andrew Carwood regularly directs The Cardinall's Musick, an ensemble renowned throughout Europe for their many concerts and discs of Renaissance music. The group has received critical acclaim for their recordings of the complete works of the mid-16th. century English composers Nicholas Ludford and Robert Fayrfax, and their latest disc, the fifth in a series comprising the complete vocal works of William Byrd, has been proposed as the best recording to have been made of the three masses. In 1995, The Cardinall's Musick won the Gramophone Award, and they have subsequently received the Diapason d'0r in France, the Schallplatten Kritik Preis and the Schallplatten Echo Award.

Musica Reservata was established in 1991 with the aim of performing less well-known repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, placing special emphasis on Spanish polyphony. The group has no resident director, and this has allowed them to work with many specialists in early music, such as Jean-Marc Andrieu, Peter Phillips and Bruno Turner, as well as with Catalan conductors such as Josep Vila and Mireia Barrera.
Musica Reservata have given concerts throughout Catalonia and the rest of Spain, and have toured in Germany and Italy. Over the last ten years they have performed at major festivals such as those at Granada and Daroca, at the Barcelona Early Music Festival, the Semana de M£sica Religiosa at Cuenca, the Auditori XXI concert series in Barcelona and the Setmana de M£sica Antiga at Matar¢ (the latter in conjunction with the Ensemble Unda Maris). They have recovered works by Spanish and Catalan composers such as Alonso Lobo, Bartomeu C…ceres and Juan ¨Hauria de ser "Joan"? Pau Pujol.

In December, 1995, Musica Reservata were awarded first prize in the Juventudes Musicales de Espa¤a Young Musicians' Competition. This award led to the group's first CD, recorded the following year in conjunction with Juventudes Musicales. At present, they are preparing a new recording under Bruno Turner for the Ma de Guido label.

The ensemble work regularly with Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars, who has conducted them in Barcelona (1999) and Granada (2000). Musica Reservata performed Stockhausen's Stimmung in Cuenca and Granada in 1999.