Andrea Ross
Encyclopedia
Andrea Christine Ross is an American
singer and actress. She has been an award-winning lead actress on stage in her local area of Boston
, Massachusetts since the age of eight years old. At age 13 she was discovered by Andrew Lloyd Webber
, who decided to champion her career and launch her as his protégée with a debut CD recording in 2007.
, the daughter of William, an engineer, and Paula, a medical-device company employee. In elementary school she took a variety of lessons in music, dance and also played sports, but it was enrollment at Franklin School for the Performing Arts that won out. Ross progressed quickly from ensemble roles to lead musical theater roles on-stage. Encouraged by her enthusiasm, her parents allowed her to travel to Boston to audition for a professional family theater. She won the lead role in "Tuck Everlasting
" at the Wheelock Family Theater at age 10. This was the beginning of a five-year continuous string of winning lead roles and critical praise from the Boston-area press and theater community. Her middle and elementary school educations occurred at the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School (B.F.C.C.P.S.) and the Davis Thayer School respectively, both located in Franklin, Massachusetts
. She graduated in 2009 from Noble and Greenough School
, in Dedham, Massachusetts
and currently attends Pace University
.
commented: "Stage presence is that ineffable quality some performers have to command an audience's attention, sometimes before they even begin to speak ... Combine that with considerable acting talent, a magnificent singing voice, and a strong sense of focus and the star quality is undeniable."
Ross has been a member of the Actors' Equity Association professional union since 2006.
In August 2006 Ross portrayed Gabriella Montez in Disney Theatrical Productions' and Music Theater International's first granted license of the musical stage production "High School Musical
" at Stagedoor Manor
in Loch Sheldrake, New York.
When Lloyd Webber introduced Ross at his Sydmonton Festival
in 2005, he said:
was released on March 5, 2007 by Universal Classics & Jazz in the UK. It was produced by Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright.
, Ross was able to donate her time to the Challenge Anneka
challenge to record an album to raise money for children's hospices around the UK. The show was broadcast on June 6, 2007 on ITV
. The album, Over the Rainbow
was released on June 4, 2007 and reached a peak position of #1 on UK Compilation Chart
. Ross sang the song "No Matter What
".
. The concert was held July 1, 2007, which would have been Diana's 46th birthday: it was one of the first major events to take place in the new Wembley Stadium
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and actress. She has been an award-winning lead actress on stage in her local area of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts since the age of eight years old. At age 13 she was discovered by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
, who decided to champion her career and launch her as his protégée with a debut CD recording in 2007.
Biography
Andrea Ross was born in Dover, New HampshireDover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 29,987 at the 2010 census, the largest in the New Hampshire Seacoast region...
, the daughter of William, an engineer, and Paula, a medical-device company employee. In elementary school she took a variety of lessons in music, dance and also played sports, but it was enrollment at Franklin School for the Performing Arts that won out. Ross progressed quickly from ensemble roles to lead musical theater roles on-stage. Encouraged by her enthusiasm, her parents allowed her to travel to Boston to audition for a professional family theater. She won the lead role in "Tuck Everlasting
Tuck Everlasting
Tuck Everlasting is a fantasy children's novel by Natalie Babbitt. It was published in 1975. The book explores the concept of immortality and the reasons why it might not be as desirable as it appears to be. It has sold over two million copies and has been called a classic of modern children's...
" at the Wheelock Family Theater at age 10. This was the beginning of a five-year continuous string of winning lead roles and critical praise from the Boston-area press and theater community. Her middle and elementary school educations occurred at the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School (B.F.C.C.P.S.) and the Davis Thayer School respectively, both located in Franklin, Massachusetts
Franklin, Massachusetts
The Town of Franklin is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,635 at the 2010 census.-History:Franklin was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and was officially incorporated during the American Revolution. The town was formed from the western part of the town...
. She graduated in 2009 from Noble and Greenough School
Noble and Greenough School
The Noble and Greenough School, commonly known as Nobles, is a coeducational, nonsectarian day and boarding school for students in grades seven through twelve. It is located on a campus in Dedham, Massachusetts. The current enrollment of 550 students includes a balance of boys and girls, of whom...
, in Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
and currently attends Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
.
Stage career
On May 23, 2005, Ross became the youngest person to receive Boston's prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress. In her nominating remarks on Ross' behalf, Terry Byrne, theatre critic of the Boston HeraldBoston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
commented: "Stage presence is that ineffable quality some performers have to command an audience's attention, sometimes before they even begin to speak ... Combine that with considerable acting talent, a magnificent singing voice, and a strong sense of focus and the star quality is undeniable."
Ross has been a member of the Actors' Equity Association professional union since 2006.
In August 2006 Ross portrayed Gabriella Montez in Disney Theatrical Productions' and Music Theater International's first granted license of the musical stage production "High School Musical
High School Musical
High School Musical is a 2006 American television film, first in the High School Musical film franchise. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful film that Disney Channel Original Movie ever produced, with a television sequel High School Musical 2 released in 2007 and...
" at Stagedoor Manor
Stagedoor Manor
Stagedoor Manor is a performing arts summer camp located in Loch Sheldrake, New York. Over the past 36 years, it has trained thousands of young actors, many of whom have gone on to success in film, television, and theatre....
in Loch Sheldrake, New York.
When Lloyd Webber introduced Ross at his Sydmonton Festival
Sydmonton Festival
The Sydmonton Festival is a summer arts festival presented in a deconsecrated 16th century chapel on the grounds of Sydmonton Court, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Hampshire estate...
in 2005, he said:
Professional theater credits
- Tuck EverlastingTuck EverlastingTuck Everlasting is a fantasy children's novel by Natalie Babbitt. It was published in 1975. The book explores the concept of immortality and the reasons why it might not be as desirable as it appears to be. It has sold over two million copies and has been called a classic of modern children's...
(Winnie Foster), 2002 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA - AnnieAnnie (musical)Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
(Annie), 2002 Orpheum Theater, Foxborough, MA - AnnieAnnie (musical)Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
(Annie), 2003 Trinity Repertory Theater, Providence, RI - Lizzie Borden: The Musical (Young Lizzie), 2004 Stoneham Theatre, Stoneham, MA
- A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
(Fredrika), 2004 The Lyric Stage of Boston, Boston, MA - Ramona QuimbyRamona QuimbyRamona Geraldine Quimby is a character from a series of novels by Beverly Cleary. She starts out in the Henry Huggins series as the pestering little sister of Henry's friend Beatrice, called "Beezus" by Ramona and her family. She was given a larger role in the novel Beezus and Ramona...
(Ramona), 2004 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA - The Sound of MusicThe Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
(Liesl von Trapp), 2005 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA - Sara Crewe: A Little PrincessA Little PrincessA Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's Boarding School, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.According to Burnett, she...
(Sara Crewe), 2006 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA - Whistle Down The WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
(Swallow), 2007 US National Tour - Saint JoanSaint Joan (play)Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
(Joan of ArcJoan of ArcSaint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
), 2008 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA - Thoroughly Modern MillieThoroughly Modern Millie (musical)Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. Based on the 1967 film of the same name, Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City to marry for...
(Millie), 2009 Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, MA - The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
(Pearl), 2010 Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston, MA
Recording career
Ross' debut studio album, Moon RiverMoon River (album)
Moon River is the debut album by American singer and actress Andrea Ross, released in March 2007. The record was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright and recorded in the UK in March 2006 when Andrea Ross was just 14 years old...
was released on March 5, 2007 by Universal Classics & Jazz in the UK. It was produced by Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright.
Moon River track listing
- "Moon RiverMoon River"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists...
" - "No Matter WhatNo Matter What (Boyzone song)"No Matter What" is a song from the 1996 musical Whistle Down the Wind, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman and popularized by the group Boyzone. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart, and was the only Boyzone hit to become popular in the U.S. Jewels & Stone did a remix for the...
" (from Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
) - "Songbird"
- "White Horses" (theme to The White HorsesThe White HorsesThe White Horses is a 1965 television series co-produced by RTV Ljubljana of Yugoslavia and German TV .-Plotline:...
) - "Heart Like a Wheel"
- "The PrayerThe Prayer"The Prayer" is most commonly known as a duet between Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. This duet is the second single from Dion's Christmas album These Are Special Times and first from Bocelli's album Sogno, and was released as a promotional single on March 1, 1999."The Prayer" won the Golden Globe...
" - "All the Love I Have"
- "What the World Needs Now Is LoveWhat the World Needs Now Is Love"What the World Needs Now Is Love" is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month...
" - "You Raise Me Up"
- "Popular" (from WickedWicked (musical)Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
) - "Learn to Be Lonely"
- "Start of Something New" (from High School Musical)
- "Whistle Down the Wind"
- "One World"
Challenge Anneka
Thanks to her record label UniversalUniversal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, Ross was able to donate her time to the Challenge Anneka
Challenge Anneka
Challenge Anneka is a British television programme, produced by the independent production company Mentorn for the BBC, which aired on Friday, later Saturday evenings on BBC One between 8 September 1989 and 15 October 1995. It was announced in 2006 that the series is returning, but this time on...
challenge to record an album to raise money for children's hospices around the UK. The show was broadcast on June 6, 2007 on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. The album, Over the Rainbow
Over the Rainbow (2007 album)
Over the Rainbow - Show Tunes in Aid of the Association of Children's Hospices is a charity album of show tunes, recorded by various artists and released in 2007. It is in aid of...
was released on June 4, 2007 and reached a peak position of #1 on UK Compilation Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. Ross sang the song "No Matter What
No Matter What (Boyzone song)
"No Matter What" is a song from the 1996 musical Whistle Down the Wind, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman and popularized by the group Boyzone. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart, and was the only Boyzone hit to become popular in the U.S. Jewels & Stone did a remix for the...
".
Concert for Diana
Ross was one of several artistes selected to perform at the memorial Concert for DianaConcert for Diana
Concert for Diana was a concert held at the then new Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday; 31 August that year brought the 10th anniversary of her death...
. The concert was held July 1, 2007, which would have been Diana's 46th birthday: it was one of the first major events to take place in the new Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
.
Featured
- 2006: The Classical Album 2007 - "You Raise Me UpYou Raise Me Up"You Raise Me Up" was the debut single from Westlife's fifth studio album, Face To Face.This version is considered by many to be the most popular , of all the various versions of the same song. The single peaked at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's 13th Number One. It was the first...
" - 4:24 - 2007: You're Beautiful - 40 Inspiring Songs - "What the World Needs Now Is LoveWhat the World Needs Now Is Love"What the World Needs Now Is Love" is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month...
" - 2:46 - 2007: Over the RainbowOver the Rainbow (2007 album)Over the Rainbow - Show Tunes in Aid of the Association of Children's Hospices is a charity album of show tunes, recorded by various artists and released in 2007. It is in aid of...
- "No Matter WhatNo Matter What (Boyzone song)"No Matter What" is a song from the 1996 musical Whistle Down the Wind, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman and popularized by the group Boyzone. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart, and was the only Boyzone hit to become popular in the U.S. Jewels & Stone did a remix for the...
" - 3:40 - 2008: Andrew Lloyd Webber 60 - "Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
" - 3:32 and "Learn to Be LonelyLearn to Be Lonely"Learn to be Lonely" is a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart for the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. The song is performed by Minnie Driver during the closing credits, and is found on the film's soundtrack....
" - 2:20 - 2009: Time to Say Goodbye - 40 Timeless Classics for Moments of Reflection - "Moon RiverMoon River"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists...
" - 3:11 - 2009: You Can't Stop The Beat! Hits From Your Favourite Musicals - "Whistle Down the WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
" - 3:32
Music videos
| Year | Song | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "Moon River Moon River "Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists... " |
Jason Glenister |
External links
- Official website
- Andrea Ross page at BroadwayWorld.com
- Andrea Ross video group at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....