Hailed by the Strad Magazine for his "warm-hearted playing and mellow tone" Andrew Gonzalez has a diverse career around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and entrepreneur in music. A native of Chesapeake Virginia, Andrew started viola in a Chesapeake public school music program at the age of 10. In his middle school years, Andrew was first introduced to chamber music when he joined the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, a chamber music ensemble in Virginia comprised of some of the most talented students and gifted teachers. HRCP is where he met his two viola professors Amy Davis and Stacey Miggliozi, who remained his teachers until 2010. During his high school years Andrew went to the Governor’s School for the Arts, an arts school based in Norfolk Virginia. The combination of talented colleagues, amazing leadership by conductor and music director Jeff Phelps, and an overall inclusive atmosphere led Andrew to develop as a musician and well-rounded person. In 2010, he went to the Juilliard School where he did both his undergrad and graduate degrees, completing his bachelors in 2014 and masters in 2016. There he studied with world-renowned violists Michael Tree, Heidi Castleman, Steve Tenenbom, and Hsin-Yun Huang.
Right out of school, Andrew began a two-year residency as a member of "Ensemble Connect", a chamber music ensemble based at Carnegie Hall that trains its members to become their own leaders and entrepreneurs in music. As part of Connect, Andrew has taught and performed in 2 residencies at Skidmore College, participated in the inaugural Paris and Colorado winter and spring residencies, and has played in multiple chamber music performances at Carnegie Hall. As part of his fellowship with Ensemble Connect, Andrew taught at PS 226 Alfred De B. Mason in Brooklyn.
Andrew has been a soloist in orchestras across the country, most recently playing the Walton Viola Concerto with the Virginia Symphony. Past concerto performances also include playing the Stamitz Viola Concerto with the Sphinx Symphony, Telemann's viola concerto and Bach's Brandenburg 6 with Hampton Roads Chamber Players, as well as Strauss' Don Quixote with the Juilliard orchestra.
Andrew has given numerous recital performances around the country, most recently a recital at Barge Music in New York performing both of Brahms' viola sonatas. Other recent recitals include, the Clark Arts Center recital series at the Perlman Music Program, the Sunday's at Four series in Smithfield Virginia, a recital at the University of Scranton, and the Beckler Museum recital series in North Carolina. Andrew frequently performs at Barge Music and looks forward to returning there for another recital in September.
As a chamber musician, Andrew has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Martin Beaver, David Kim, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Nobuko Imai, Danny Philips, Natalie Dessay, and many others. Andrew's recent performances include the Brahms Songs for Mezzo, Viola, and Piano at the Morgan Library with Ken Noda and Sarah Mesko, Mozart's Divertimento and Copland's Sextet in Weill Recital Hall, both Mozart Piano Quartets, Schumann's piano quartet, and Beethoven's G major string trio at Barge Music, as well as a performance of Mendelssohn's String Octet with Itzhak Perlman and alumni of the Perlman Music Program.
Music festivals include the Verbier Academy, Music@Menlo, the Perlman Music Program, the Heifetz Institute, Sarasota Music Festival, Valley of the Moon Music Festival, American Bach Soloists, and many others. Since 2014, Andrew has continuously returned to the Heifetz Institute as an artist in residence and has recently been put on the chamber music faculty for their Program for the Exceptionally Gifted.
In 2014, Andrew began playing the baroque viola and studied with Cynthia Roberts at the Juilliard School. Andrew has performed in a baroque and classical ensemble in New York called Quodlibet and has had a chance to work with a lot of musicians who have come through Juilliard 415 and Yale Baroque programs. Andrew recently performed with the American Bach Soloists and Valley of the Moon Music Festival where he studied with both Robert Mealy and Elizabeth Blumenstock. Andrew looks forward to returning this summer as an artist at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival.
Andrew is also passionate about performing music of living composers. His most recent performances include a performance of Steve Reich's Different Trains in Weill Hall and a premiere of Caroline Shaw's Stucco and Brocatelle and looks forward to giving a premiere of a work by Andy Akiho in June 2018. In 2016, Andrew gave a New York premiere of Joel Friedman's When the World Disintegrates Before Your Eyes. Andrew regularly plays at the here and now festival at Barge Music, a contemporary music series dedicated to performing works by living composers.
Andrew performs regularly with Sejong Soloists, an ensemble based in New York City and has toured with them all over Europe and Asia. He is also on the sublist for the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and plays with them frequently. Andrew plays on a 1930 Frederick Haenel viola modeled after a Gasparo da Saló.