Andrew Filmer is a musician versatile in the fields of performance, academic scholarship and music education. He is the 1st Prize winner of the David Dalton Viola Research Competition 2008 sponsored by the American Viola Society and he holds a Master of Music degree in viola performance from Indiana University. As a soloist, Andrew has performed with the Chulalongkorn University Viola Ensemble and the Indiana University South Bend Chamber Orchestra. He was on the teaching faculty of Mahidol University in Thailand for two years at the Music Campus for the General Public, and was twice the viola tutor for the annual Southeast Asian Youth Orchestra.
In Indiana, Andrew Filmer studied the viola with Anthony Devroye of the Avalon Quartet, and research with Dr. David K. Barton and Dr. Robert Kolt. He was a recipient of a full scholarship and graduate assistantship from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, as well as two Leadership Recognition Awards. Beginning March 2010, Andrew will be in the Ph.D. programme at the New Zealand School of Music of Victoria and Massey universities in Wellington. With Prof. Donald Maurice as his supervisor and Dr. Martin Riseley as his co-supervisor, he will be researching multiple-instrument concertos that employ the viola as a solo instrument. He will be fully sponsored as one of the ten recipients worldwide, across all disciplines, awarded a New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship by Education New Zealand in 2009.
With an undergraduate background in journalism, Andrew has continually sought to combine dual interests in music and writing. As a part of the Dalton Competition, his research on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante was published in the Fall 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Viola Society. He was also published internationally in Strings Magazine in 2006, where he detailed the vibrant music scene in the Southeast Asian region, and advocated for fairer pricing of sheet music relative to local economies. In addition, Mahidol University’s Music Journal has published seven of Andrew’s articles on music education and string technique.
Outside of mainstream classical music, Andrew was a guest violist in the Jeep Jazz Trio and Friends recording, and has experimented with bluegrass and postmodern improvisation.
Photography courtesy of Jonathan Yee.
Website Features
- Research on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, originally published in the Journal of the American Viola Society [under "Publications"].
- The selection of programme notes which are available for public use, with author attribution.
- The various string postings function as online violin/viola lessons, and articles on music education as a whole.
