Andrew King named assistant professor at Purdue

Friday, May 18, 2007

Andrew King, director of orchestras at Carmel High School, has been hired as an assistant professor at Purdue University Bands & Orchestra with responsibilities to conduct the Purdue Symphony Orchestra, Collegiate Concert Band and Fall Concert Band.

Director Jay S. Gephart says King will begin his duties in August. During the 2006-07 school year, King served as a visiting professor at Purdue and was a candidate in the national search conducted by the department to hire a permanent orchestra conductor.

In 2001 and 2002, King's top orchestra at Carmel was named state champion by the Indiana State School Music Association. He led an orchestra program at Carmel that boasted more than 325 students in six orchestras, and organized its chamber music program consisting of more than 100 students.

In April 2006, his orchestra traveled to St. Petersburg , Russia where they performed at Philharmonia Hall and Kapella Hall at the invitation of the Russian Ministry of Culture. In 2002, the Carmel Orchestra performed the complete Mahler "Symphony No. 4" at Carnegie Hall, drawing rave reviews.

"There can't possibly be a better high school orchestra in America . I listen to hundreds of groups every year, and I have never heard an orchestra that could play the Mahler or that plays as musically as your group," commented Dr. Craig Arnold.

Recently, King served as executive director of the Great Lake Music Camps in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. He has also served as orchestra division head for Bands of America/Orchestra America, music director for the Indianapolis Youth Orchestra and assistant conductor for the Butler Symphony Orchestra.

He holds a bachelor of music education degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master's of music in orchestral conducting from Butler University.

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