Andrew Markel is a music educator for the Muscogee County School District and a graduate of Columbus State University holding a degree in music education. In addition to teaching music, Andrew has spent the last 10 years studying trombone and composition. Andrew's compositions can be purchased through the "composition" tab on this site.
As an educator, Andrew works at Mathews Elementary in Columbus, GA where he teaches general music to 600+ students. At Mathews, he also runs extracurricular piano, drumming, ukulele, and choir groups. He has developed, adapted, and taught many lessons that mix ideas from Koldaly, Orff, and Fierabend methodology to create high energy and engaging lessons that teach students more than the musical content. Andrew teaches to instill a love and appreciation for music in his students while conveying the importance music has in everyday life. He presents lessons that emphasize the ever evolving traditions we hold in our personal, national, and global cultures. Samples of these lesson plans can be acquired by contacting Andrew via the contact page. As a trombonist, Andrew was a part of the CSU trombone studio under the direction of Dr. Bradley Palmer, which recently premiered his latest trombone ensemble work, “Noctiluca Scintillations.” While in the group, they premiered and recorded his octet “La Reconquista” that has found it’s way to many universities worldwide. This recording can be found on the CSU trombone studio’s CD, Full Tilt, released in 2017. Andrew has performed internationally at the SliderAsia Trombone Festival in 2014. Andrew is the lead trombonist in the Cavaliers Jazz Orchestra, a longstanding ensemble in Columbus dating back to the 1940's. This big band performs shows regularly in the Columbus area. As a composer, Andrew is currently commissioning works that specifically meet the demand for quality, mid-level trombone ensemble pieces that are also original compositions. He has worked closely with Italian trombone soloist Peter Stiener, American trombonist Brian Hecht, and Dutch trombonist Martin Schippers, composing and arranging works that have been performed worldwide on their tours. He is also commissioning works for the CSU trombone choir, the STS professors' choir, large consortium projects, and high school trombone octets. In 2015, he was selected to have a trombone quartet, “Clown Car,” premiered at the 2015 Third Coast Trombone Retreat. The recording can be found on YouTube. Since that time, Andrew's composition style has become more defined and has gained popularity on the international level. He has had original pieces performed by over 50 universities internationally, Brian Hecht of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Duo Steiner-Hochwartner, the CSU Philharmonic, trombone and clarinet "Duo Atpiqué", multiple high schools, among others. Many of these premieres happened at the International Trombone Festivals between 2017 and 2022. Andrew composes in multiple settings but has his focus in writing for the trombone, as shown in the compositions featured on this website. |