Andrew Wiele has always grown up around music. His mother had a piano in the house and played it regularly while he was a young child, and this inspired him to take piano lessons from a young age. Throughout his childhood, Andrew was heavily involved with music both at school and outside of it. His favorite classes were band and choir, and thanks to the support of his parents, he was able to continue piano lessons until he graduated high school. It was during his senior year of high school when he realized that he loved music and wanted to pursue it as a career, thanks to the music of artists like George Winston, Horace Silver, and Herbie Hancock.

One of Andrew’s most deeply held beliefs is that music can heal the soul and communicate things words could never express.  Through the creation and performance of music people can come together, build community and strengthen bonds. Music and its many forms can cross over any barrier and foster peace and happiness. Similarly, Andrew believes learning how to write, perform, and teach music is a useful discipline for all people. Beyond the immediate skills of actually writing, performing, and teaching, deeper virtues such as delayed gratification, active listening, problem solving and perseverance are all skills necessary to effectively learn music. Through this process of studying music, Andrew believes that people can better themselves, which will in turn create better worlds.

Andrew’s outlook on music was heavily shaped during his time studying as an undergraduate at the University of Northern Iowa. There, he was exposed to many different kinds of people, music, and ways of thinking. These years were formative in shaping his views about music; he directly experienced the concepts above. Andrew played with many fine ensembles, had his compositions performed and recorded, and competed in many competitions, even winning the UNI Concerto Competition in Fall 2018. The Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra toured Brazil in the Spring of 2017, where Andrew had perhaps the most formative performance of his life, playing American jazz in an American-themed bar to Brazilians in Brazil. It was there that the connecting and healing power of music was made most evident and clear to him, and motivated him to pursue a career in music with even greater vigor.

Currently, Andrew has several outlets through which he shares his love of music with others. As a Fellow of New Music at the University of Missouri, Andrew is able to bring to life the work of local composers. In his personal studies, Andrew seeks to bring context to each piece that he performs and do more than just play the piece. Audiences will know why each piece is written and what is important about it as well as hearing each piece; Andrew aims to bring a more holistic, comprehensive approach to the music he performs. He currently participates in many ensembles, both jazz and classical, and his recorded music is available on Band Camp and YouTube.