About

Andy Pease serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Music at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, where he directs the Wind Ensemble and Brass Ensemble and teaches conducting, orchestration, composition, and brass methods. At Hartwick, he spearheaded the creation of the pathbreaking album, Stravinsky: Alone No More, with the Hartwick Faculty Wind Octet, released by Mark Masters. Beyond Hartwick, he is co-conductor of the Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble, a community band also based in Oneonta, as well as the professional Oneonta Community Concert Band. His additional guest conducting work has taken him to several states and the United Kingdom, including two appearances at Carnegie Hall with bands from Hartwick College and Columbia University. He completed his DMA degree in wind conducting at Arizona State University, studying with Gary Hill, Wayne Bailey, and William Reber. His work there earned him the 2017 American Prize in Wind Band Conducting at the collegiate level. He is committed to bringing composers into contact with his ensembles, and as such he has led rehearsal clinics with David del Tredici, Johan de Meij, John Mackey, Michael Markowski, James David, Erika Svanoe, Eric Ewazen, Edward Green, Oliver Caplan, JoAnne Harris, and Chris Lamb, among others.

Dr. Pease started his career in New York City, where he helped put wind bands back on the map. While music director of the Columbia University Wind Ensemble, he began a student guest conductor program with Columbia’s Teachers College and helped to start the Columbia Festival of Winds, an annual fundraising festival for inner-city music education that brought the wind bands of the New York City area together for a day of concerts. Concurrently, he conducted the community band Columbia Summer Winds, which inaugurated its Outdoor Composition Contest under his watch. He also taught elementary and high school band in New York and Arizona, and remains committed to public education as a board member of the New York State Band Directors Association (NYSBDA). He has additional degrees from Dartmouth College, Teachers College at Columbia University, and Hofstra University. His past conducting teachers include Max Culpepper, Melinda O’Neal, Dino Anagnost, and Peter Boonshaft, as well as clinics with other leading figures in the conducting world.

Dr. Pease got his start as a composer writing rock songs in high school, and he has written and arranged for wind bands and chamber groups ever since. His latest compositions appear at his personal website, www.andypease.com. In addition, he runs two websites dedicated to the music of the wind band. Wind Band Literature has been used as a repertoire resource for bands around the world. The Wind Band Symphony Archive is a dynamic record of all known symphonies written for wind band.