Meet Andrew Koehler of Kalamazoo, MI

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Koehler.

Hi Andrew, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am an orchestral conductor based in Kalamazoo, MI. I serve as the music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia — which is part of my job as professor of music at Kalamazoo College — and as the music director of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra. Both roles are the result of a lifetime of musical learning: from beginning as a violinist at the age of five, to taking my first steps as a conductor in college, to post-graduate study in Vienna.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Any artist will face rejection, and there’s been no shortage of that for me over the years — programs of study where I was not accepted, conducting competitions where I didn’t get the result I had wanted. But I’ve been lucky enough to find a path that allows me to make a living as a musician largely on my own terms, and I feel immensely grateful for that.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I didn’t come to music as naturally as some might expect. I played violin dutifully enough when I was little, but I can’t say that I truly loved it from an early age. It was a combination of the right teacher, gaining enough skill to really start to be able to say something with music, and playing in orchestras that turned on a light for me in high school. It was then that I realized this was something I really loved.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewkoehlerconductor.com