Andy Pease's Bio
Originally from Durham, CT, Andrew Pease began trumpet studies at age 9
and piano at age 12. He graduated cum laude with high honors in music
from Dartmouth College in 2001, where he received the Wind Symphony's
Senior Symphonic Award and the Richter Grant for Senior
Research. He received his Master of Arts degree in Music
Education from Columbia University's Teachers College in
2004. He is currently working towards a second Master's
Degree in Wind Conducting at Hofstra University with Peter Boonshaft,
which will finish in summer 2009. His past conducting
teachers include Max Culpepper, Melinda O'Neal, and Dino Anagnost, as
well as clinics with Glen Adsit, Allan McMurray, Stephen Pratt, and
Richard Blatti.
Mr. Pease has been very active in a wide array of musical activities,
from symphony orchestras to his own rock band. An avid student musician
in his youth, he was in 4 choirs and 3 bands in high school. In
addition, he honed his musical skills in the rock band Pickled Pollies.
At Dartmouth he was the founding Music Director and principal arranger
of Dartmouth Steel, as
well as Student Conductor of the Dartmouth College Marching Band during
its 2000 season, still finding time to appear as a guest conductor with
the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra and conduct the pit in a concert
production of Guys and Dolls. His senior thesis combined steel pans and
brass instruments into his own original composition which he conducted
in its premiere in 2001. Currently Mr. Pease is the music teacher at
Lakewood Elementary School in Congers, NY, where he has taught
classroom music, elementary band, and chorus to grades k-5 since
2004. He also is the music director and principal conductor
of the Columbia University Wind Ensemble, a post which he has held
since 2002. In the summers since 2003, Mr. Pease leads the Columbia
Summer Winds, a community-based offshoot of the Columbia University
Wind Ensemble, in free outdoor concerts in New York City. He
has recently appeared as guest conductor with New Jersey's Hanover Wind
Symphony and New York's Inter-School Orchestra Symphonic Band.
Mr. Pease remains active as a brass player, featured recently on both
trombone and trumpet. He has appeared as a trumpeter with New York
City's Lawyers Orchestra, Centre Symphony, and Columbia Collegium
Musicum, while soloing on Copland's Quiet City with the
Chamber
Orchestra of Science and Medicine. He also subs as a trombonist in the
pit orchestras of the musicals at Clarkstown High School North.
Mr. Pease is also active as an arranger, having most recently arranged
Astor Piazzolla's La
Muerte del Angel for the CUWE. His other
arrangements have included such diverse media as steel band, orchestra,
and recorders, and have included styles ranging from Christmas carols
to tango to popular movie and video game themes.