Andy Pease's Bio
As music director of the Columbia University Wind Ensemble and the
community band Columbia Summer Winds, Andrew Pease has helped to put
the wind band back on the map in New York City. Mr. Pease
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 Master of Arts
degrees in Music Education from Columbia University's Teachers College
in 2004 and in Wind Conducting from Hofstra University in 2010. His
past conducting teachers include Max Culpepper, Melinda O'Neal, Dino
Anagnost, and Peter Boonshaft, as well as clinics with Glen Adsit,
Allan McMurray, Stephen Pratt, and Richard Blatti. He was
recently a Conducting Fellow at the first ever Juilliard School
Conducting Workshop for Music Educators, where he studied with Jim
Smith, George Stelluto, and Virginia Allen.
Mr. Pease has
explored music in all its many forms, 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. By day he is a music teacher at Lakewood
Elementary School in Congers, NY, where he teaches classroom music,
elementary band, and chorus to grades k-5. He has appeared as
guest conductor with New Jersey's Hanover Wind Symphony and has
conducted massed bands all over the Northeast. He remains active as a
brass player, featured recently on trombone, trumpet, and French horn.
Mr. Pease is also in demand as an arranger and orchestrator, having
most recently collaborated with award-winning composer Edward Green on
a new edition of his Overture in E-flat
for band. Mr. Pease's other arrangements have been cast in 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.