Current:

Classroom Music K - 6 / Choir Teacher @ Spring Hill Elementary, Anchorage, AK

History:

Born in Upland, CA, USA.

Raised in Aurora, IL, USA by loving parents and older sisters.

About:

Fascinated with sound, machines, computers, music, math, and puppets.

Active sound artist, composer, educator, performer, tinkerer, and luthier.

Inventor of unique musical things.

Curiously attuned to improvisation.

Current residence: Tustin, CA USA.

Education:

Master of Arts in Teaching Music K - 12,

University of Alaska Southeast Juneau 2017

Master of Music in Composition,

University of Alberta 2015

Bachelor of Music in Composition and Double Bass Performance,

Illinois State University 2011

Recent Happenings:

Premiere of ‘Afognak’ at Anchorage Bowl Chamber Orchestra May 2021

KI Duo presents ‘Audio Post Cards from Alaska’ at New Music Gathering 2020

Composing in the Wilderness, Fairbanks, AK 2019

SoundStreams Emerging Composer Workshop, Toronto, ON, Canada 2016

Artist Residency @ Art Farm, Marquette, NE 2015.

Artist Residency @ Art Farm, Marquette, NE 2014.

Charlotte New Music Festival, Charlotte, NC, 2013.

SoundSCAPE New Music Festival, Maccagno, Italy, 2012.

The Nitty Gritty:

Andrew Scott Israelsen is a composer, programmer and music educator in Anchorage, Alaska. He currently teaches classroom music at Spring Hill Elementary to students Kindergarten thru 6th grade. He shares his creativity and love of musical exploration and improvisation with his students. He brings this same love of exploration and improvisation to the works he composes and performs. He studied education at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, Alaska (2016), received his Master of Music in Composition at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB (2015) and his Bachelor of Music at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, IL.

His eclectic, creative, and varied musics have been featured in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Italy. His work intermixes chamber music, improvisation, electronics, found objects, and narrative elements. He is intrigued by altering the relationship between performers and the score; Requesting a connection beyond notes, rhythms, and musicality to be nurtured between performers and score. Some scores have rituals or dramatic elements that occur before, during, and after performance. Others are adapted for reorganization or performer choice. Occasionally an entire composition may be a puzzle or contain unknowable elements.

Andrew has participated in several residencies with co-improviser-composer and violist Kate Kroko. Together they conduct, record, and reflect upon interviews with people across the United States in a continuous musical project of creative documentary. These works have challenged the duo to really understand the person and place they have connected with, the express the feelings, experiences, and stories discovered through music.