Trained as a solo classical guitarist, andy performs original compositions in a modern style. Some tracks are percussive, some meditative, all are melodic and spiritual.

13 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Twentieth Century, NEW AGE: Solo Instrumental

Show all album songs: Horizons Songs


Details:
I am originally from Montague, Michigan, where I began studying music on the violin at age 7. My interest was sparked after attending an orchestral concert with the West Shore Symphony. My mother made the long drive to Fremont every Tuesday to take me to violin lessons with Anna Land. For ten years, I learned the Suzuki method up to book 5. Later, lessons focused more on Celtic and Irish fiddle tunes. In high school I was a member of the West Shore Youth Symphony.

My brother Tony and I shared our first electric guitar together during middle school. This gave me the opportunity to experiment with sounds and develop basic technique. I listened to guitarists like Randy Rhoads and Joe Satriani, mystified by their use of classical counterpoint, complex chord progressions, and their use of acoustic and finger style guitar. Forming many bands through high school, I played original compositions and 80's rock tunes. The band "Scourge" won the Campus Life Battle of the Bands in Whitehall, Michigan in 1993. I also picked up the twelve string guitar for gospel and liturgical music on Sundays. I did not have guitar lessons at this point, so I was a completely self-taught player, and my compositions were purely written by ear, and followed no formal rules.

I attended Siena Heights University near Detroit, Michigan, where I earned a BA in Music Technology. I was able to study under a very modern approach, including music business, electronic music, experimental jazz, and recording technology. Through the University, I began an internship working for the Toledo recording studio Scharren Recording. This later turned into my first full time job as an audio and video engineer. I spent years under the wing of Dan Schroeder, grammy winning pro tools engineer. I went on later to work for AudioMatrix, Strawberry Fields, and OhioMedia, as well as engineering for the Toledo Symphony. I entered some local talent shows with my electric guitar, an effects pedal, and a phrase sampler. On Sundays, I played 12 string guitar in the praise band. Many assignments for the electronic music courses required composing synth pieces. Somehow I managed to find time to play second violin the school quartet. It was during this time that I began the intense study of the classical guitar, playing a master class with Eliot Fisk. My senior year, I performed with the Siena Heights Men's Choir and Madrigal Ensemble in Carnegie Hall.

After graduation, I accepted an adjunct faculty position of Instructor of Guitar at Siena Heights University, Adrian College, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra Community Music School. I continued to teach at the college level for the next six years.

It was during this time that I formed the Ann Arbor Hard Rock band "Climb", which opened for national acts such as Taproot and Funktelligence. Our favorite piece to perform was "Against the Dirt," which featured a digereedoo solo!

Then I moved on to the graduate schools at the University of Toledo and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and made my living as a classical guitar instructor. I managed a few bands, released a compilation CD of the best local bands the I had recorded in my pro tools studio, and continued to collaborate with musicians from my home town in West Michigan. I released two solo CDs of original instrumental acoustic guitar music - Impressions and Corridors. Impressions is a meditation CD of acoustic guitar. Corridors is part solo classical guitar, part celtic guitar, and part acoustic blues complete with bass and drums. This was a very busy time in my life, because my solo act was the âhouse bandâ at two local establishments. This show featured solo instrumental acoustic guitar and the Boomerang phrase sampler (and sometimes hand percussion). I started the record label "Omega 13 Records", and released a compilation CD of the bands I had recorded.

I took the next summer off to perform and study in Italy with the Rome Festival Orchestra. While in Rome, I studied with Stephan Traini, instructor at St. Mary's conservatory of music. I performed Vivaldi's Concerto in D for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Suite Brazilian by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Robert DeVisee's Lute Suite in D minor.

Upon returning to the States, I performed Vivaldi's Concerto in D for Guitar and Orchestra with the Adrian Symphony.

The next summer, I relocated to Colorado to attend the Aspen Music Festival, hosted by Julliard's Sharon Isbin. There I studied and performed James McGuire's Canzone in E minor, as well as two original pieces, "March of the Butterflies" and "Far Away".

After seeing an ad calling for a mandolin and fiddle player for a roots rock band, I called and scheduled and audition. I showed up to the audition never having played the mandolin (if fact, I had just purchased one a few days earlier), but was asked to join the band after playing only one song. This band, Deep Green Nation, was a roots-rock band that went on to record with Denver-based Grammy-winning Bendiksen Productions. We played many concerts throughout Boulder and Denver, and recorded two demos. The song "Going Down" was always one of my favorites.

After landing in Longmont, Colorado, I quickly founded a unique jazz band known as The Boulder Acoustic Society. Besides numbers from the gods of 1920's jazz, like Django Reinhart and Stephan Grapelli, we played and performed original music such as "Montra" and "The Whiskey Tango".

Then, in the summer, I attended the 2005 Hawaii Guitar Festival, where I attended three master classes with Yale's Benjamin Verdery. I performed Bach's Prelude to the fourth Lute Suite in E Major, as well as a few original pieces.

During 2006, I developed a relationship with Fluid Rhythm Entertainment, in which I recorded and engineered such acts as Delisco, a finalist on the reality TV show "The Entertainer".

I gained film score experience by working with the Grammy winning crew at Bendiksen Productions on the soundtrack to the History Channel Special "The American Forest Service". Beside arranging and printing parts for the orchestra, I played guitar one one track, "Ashikan Farewell." The music was added to the film at Skywalker Sound in L.A.

At the beginning of 2007, I began recording Birth of Jubal, a hardcore band out of Longmont Colorado. We've been mixing in Pro Tools, and experimenting with the T-Racks mastering plug in, as well as Stephen Massey's "Tape Head" plug in.

Crimson Reigns, a hardcore band from Greeley Colorado, has finished their recording, and it sounds great. The local band "The Dojo Warriors" is recording in my studio this month.

I've also been recording my own original compositions for solo classical guitar at Subterranean Studios just outside of Boulder, with the two-time Grammy winning producer, Tom Wasinger. The album, titled "Horizons" is now available.

I currently study under a generous scholarship in the Master of Music program under Ricardo Iznaola at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music.