Andrew Filmer has been published in Strings and the Journal of the American Viola Society (JAVS) in the United States, String Praxis in Australia, Arco in the UK, and Crescendo in New Zealand. He holds a Master of Music degree in viola performance and two Leadership Recognition Awards from Indiana University, and prizes from the American Viola Society and the Lilburn Trust.
Andrew presented research on Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 at the 2011 International Viola Congress in Würzburg, Germany, which was published in the Summer 2011 issue of JAVS, and the new edition by COMUS in the United Kingdom. As a 1st prize winner of the David Dalton Viola Research Competition Competition, his article on Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante was published in the Fall 2008 issue of the JAVS. He was also published internationally in Strings 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 2011, Andrew took to the stage as violist in New Zealand, Germany and the UK, and as violist and conductor in Malaysia. He was previously on the teaching faculty of Mahidol University in Thailand for two years at the Music Campus for the General Public, was twice the viola tutor for the annual Southeast Asian Youth Orchestra, and a soloist with the Chulalongkorn University Viola Ensemble.
He is currently researching the use of scordatura and its extended application with data from sonic arts research. He is 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. In 2010, he performed as one of the soloists with Telemann’s Concerto for Two Violas with the NZSM’s string orchestra at Wellington’s Illiot Theatre. Previously in Indiana, Andrew studied the viola with Anthony Devroye of the Avalon Quartet, and performed as a soloist with the Indiana University South Bend Chamber Orchestra. As a doctoral candidate at the University of Otago, he is currently under the supervision of Dr Anthony Ritchie, with Professor Donald Maurice as an honorary supervisor. Andrew won the Three Minute Thesis Competition at Victoria University in 2010, and at the University of Otago in 2012.
Outside of classical music of the common practice period, Andrew was a guest violist in the Jeep Jazz Trio and Friends recording, and a member of the postmodern improvisation ensemble Plato and the Western Tradition while in Indiana. In Wellington, he is a member of jazz band The Troubles.
Photography courtesy of Jonathan Yee.
