Candidate Andrew Pease

Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Instrumental Music, Resident Artist in Conducting, and Department of Music Co-Chair

Biographical Statement

My involvement with CBDNA goes back to 2005, when the national conference came to New York City. At the time, I was leading the student-run Columbia University Wind Ensemble in Manhattan, as well as the adult community band Columbia Summer Winds. Watching that conference unfold redefined for me what was possible with bands and introduced me to many key figures in our field, including some people who later became important mentors for me. It also modeled for me the ways in which bands could come together for a common purpose, leading me to pursue ways to bring bands together in New York City for the rest of my time there. I worked successfully with my Columbia students to set up the Columbia Festival of Winds, brought composers into my rehearsals, grew the Columbia Summer Winds to 90 members, started a composition contest through that group, and facilitated NYC band director happy hours at every opportunity, all inspired by what I had seen at CBDNA 2005. Once I started my tenure track position at Hartwick in 2016, I applied these lessons to my new environment: I have sought to build Hartwick College into a band resource for its community in Oneonta, NY and the surrounding area. This has included starting a high school Honor Band, bringing composers and masterclasses to campus, and inviting local school ensembles to play with our Wind Ensemble. Meanwhile, Hartwick provided me with a platform to begin giving back to CBDNA. This has included conference presentations in 2018 (Eastern Division, Yale) and 2019 (National, Arizona State), a featured spot in the Small Band Showcase in 2022 (Eastern Division, Peabody Institute), and participation in a panel in 2023 (National, University of Georgia). I also introduced the Dartmouth Wind Ensemble at their performance in 2024 (Eastern Division, Cornell). In addition, I was appointed to chair the Small Band Program Working Group for the Eastern Division in 2020. That group produced COVID-era recommendations for smaller band programs and hosted a series of virtual open forums throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. Finally, I have sent students to the Small College Intercollegiate Band (National and Eastern Division) every conference year since 2017. In short, CBDNA came into my life at a pivotal moment, providing a lasting and influential example of artistic musicianship and the power of meaningful professional and community connections. It has provided me with opportunities for professional growth, expression, and camaraderie ever since, while also enriching the experiences of my Hartwick students. I would thus be honored to serve CBDNA as the Eastern Division President-Elect.

Vision for the Future of CBDNA

College bands face some stiff headwinds in the coming years. For demographic reasons, college enrollments are on track to drop precipitously in 2026. Already, smaller colleges are closing everywhere, and programs are being eliminated or consolidated at those that remain open, with music programs often targeted. Meanwhile, fewer eligible students are choosing to go to college, often due to a perception that colleges are elite institutions that do not reflect their families’ values, and the hard fact that college is not affordable. This puts CBDNA, which for decades has prioritized advocating for the wind band as an artistic medium, in a tough position, its historical core mission askew from the challenges of the day.

But these challenges also present CBDNA with an opportunity. I see a future where CBDNA is above all a community resource for band teachers and students at ALL levels, not just colleges. After all, in order for colleges to remain vibrant and alive, we must support younger band students in their pre-college journeys. We must also acknowledge that most students in band are not on track to become professional musicians or music educators, and therefore we must maintain a robust support network for amateur-oriented music making among both our members and college students more broadly, alongside our proven ability to provide excellent pre-professional experiences. Put another way, we must cultivate life-long musicianship from the very earliest ages as we seek to build and sustain college band programs. To that end, CBDNA can use its substantial resources of highly educated and creative professionals to address these issues. I would propose, for instance, adding committees on Recruitment, Community Involvement, and K-12 Resources. All of these will advance the goal of getting more students involved in band and keeping them there through college and potentially beyond.

CBDNA can also work toward this goal through its conferences, which have historically been a highlight of CBDNA membership. If we are looking to more completely interface with our communities and K-12 schools, then we must seek ways to bring community organizations and K-12 teachers and students into the conference experience. This can include inviting high school or community bands to play, offering discounted conference registration or membership to K-12 educators, cultivating content for these groups, and explicitly inviting the public to concerts and presentations. None of these ideas are new, but a renewed and sustained emphasis on them could begin to grow the metaphorical tent of CBDNA and help foster more connections with the community that we need.

Finally, I see a future in which CBDNA does more to fully acknowledge the realities of the smaller band programs in our midst, which comprise most of the college bands particularly in the Eastern Division. While I am thankful for the genuine attention that has been paid to these programs in recent years, there is more that CBDNA can do particularly in reaching out to directors of these ensembles that are not members, especially directors of community college bands and the legions of part-time college band directors. Without this outreach, their voices may never be heard. CBDNA should also carefully consider small and under-resourced bands at conferences, both in how to include their performances and how to feature more content that is directly relevant to their situations.

Uniting all of these strands, I see a future where CBDNA works to support its members, and especially those who lead the most vulnerable programs, through a broad palate of advocacy and outreach in local communities and schools, modeling an engagement pattern that will help its members thrive in their own environments, thus allowing college bands to remain robust and vibrant around the country. I believe that CBDNA can do all of this without sacrificing its commitment to artistry, using the ample intellectual and organizational resources of its existing members, with the hope that many types of new members will join us as a result, adding their voices to our chorus that believes so strongly in the power of band to knit people together. If you share my vision, please consider me as you vote for Eastern Division President-Elect.