Conductor

Andrew Pease is delighted to continue directing the Columbia University Wind Ensemble for his ninth season. 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 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. 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. In the summer he directs the Columbia Summer Winds, the CUWE's outdoor counterpart, a post which he has held for eight seasons. 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.