As a composer and viola player, Ian Anderson is a member of many different ensembles, including Scottish Ballet (where he holds the position of Principal Viola), Wooden Elephant (extended string quintet which reimagines classic electronic-based popular music albums as contemporary classical concert works, where he plays viola and makes the arrangements), yllwshrk (alternative/electronic rock, ‘yellow shark’, where he plays a variety of instruments and writes music), and Berlin-based contemporary string quartet Sonar Quartett. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London (James Sleigh, undergraduate viola), and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow (David Fennessy, postgraduate composition).
Ian’s music has been soundtracked by AppleTV+ and Netflix, and has been performed by orchestras including Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, BBC Concert Orchestra, Komische Oper Berlin, Beethovenorchester Bonn, and members of Concertgebouw Orchestra.
In 2024 Ian contributed orchestral arrangements for singer-songwriter Jordan Rakei’s BBC Proms debut with Royal Northern Sinfonia.
He is also a regular with the London Contemporary Orchestra, with whom he has appeared on albums such as Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Thom Yorke’s Anima, and The Smile’s Wall of Eyes.
In 2021 Wooden Elephant released their first album, LANDSCAPES, KNIVES & GLUE — Radiohead’s Kid A Recycled on Backlash Music, which was featured as an Apple Music Top 10 Album and described by them as “an extraordinarily inventive and imaginative reinterpretation, an aural tour de force”.
In 2022, Wooden Elephant collaborated with Moor Mother and Beethovenorchester Bonn to creating a concert version of Moor Mother’s album Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes. The version has subsequently been recorded, and is scheduled for release in 2025. Also in 2022, Wooden Elephant collaborated with Ballett am Rhein, creating a ballet to SOPHIE’s OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES with choreographer Gil Harush.
Future highlights include a commission by Verbier Festival and UNLTD to reimagine Miles Davis’ groundbreaking album In a Silent Way, which will be premiered at the 2026 Verbier Festival to mark the jazz legend’s centenary.
As a result of Wooden Elephant’s success in reworking albums, in 2023 Ian was approached by Komische Oper Berlin to create an orchestral version of David Bowie’s album “Heroes” – the only of his ‘Berlin trilogy’ to be written and recorded in Berlin in its entirety.
In October 2020 yllwshrk released their debut album I AM ALADDIN, produced by Grammy winner David Donaldson (Ray, 2004), and featuring collaborations with the London Contemporary Orchestra, Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition winners the Maxwell String Quartet, folk singer-songwriter Hannah Read, Mercury-nominated jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie, Andi Toma from Mouse on Mars, saxophonist Nick Roth, and composer Linda Buckley. I AM ALADDIN received 4 stars from The Scotsman newspaper, with the description “audacious debut… ravishing vocals”, and was described by influential music blog Record of the Day as “the sonic soundscapes of Radiohead meet the creative genius of Bowie’s Blackstar album”. The opening track of the album, Smudge, was recently featured in the 2024 Netflix feature film Little Wing, starring Succession’s Brian Cox. The music video of their single Pyramids — starring BBC’s inaugural The Greatest Dancer winner Ellie Fergusson — won Best Music Video at the 2020 Paris Short Film Awards.
For 10 years Ian was a member of viola and accordion duo, Duo van Vliet, along with accordionist Rafal Luc. In 2017 they released their debut album Lachrymae ReVisited on Orchid Classics. The album made a shortlist of three for Recording of the Year at the 2018 New Music Scotland Awards, alongside James MacMillan with Britten Sinfonia and The Sixteen, and Peter Maxwell Davies with the Hebrides Ensemble. Also in 2017, Duo van Vliet gave the Polish premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’s Double Concerto for viola, accordion and chamber ensemble with the OMN New Music Orchestra in Katowice.
Ian is a former Principal Viola of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and plays on a 2003 John Dilworth viola, purchased with support from the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund.
Originally from Glasgow in Scotland, Ian currently lives in Berlin, and is struggling with the local language.