Andrew L Voelker
Visiting Assistant Professor: Vocal Coaching/Accompanying
Vocal coach and pianist Andrew Voelker brings more than twelve years of experience as a performer, music director, and educator to SUNY Potsdam. Andrew is in demand as a vocal coach, specializing in lyric diction and contemporary score analysis.
In April 2023, Andrew made their Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts with tenor Andrew Lunsford. The duo performed at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium as guest artists for Choirs of America, then appeared in recital at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Masterworks at Lincoln Center series.
While serving as Associate Instructor of Collaborative Piano at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, they coached productions of Le nozze di Figaro, La traviata, Little Women, Serse, and L'Incoronazione di Poppea. In the spring semester of 2023, Andrew assisted in preparing vocal roles for the premiere production of Shulamit Ran and Charles Kondek's opera Anne Frank. Andrew also spent three years as the music director for the graduate opera workshop directed by internationally renowned soprano Heidi Grant Murphy.
From 2016-2019, Andrew was an Adjunct Lecturer of Accompanying and Opera Coach at Illinois Wesleyan University. There they were the music director for opera productions and workshops, and performed with students and faculty in recitals and New Music forums. Andrew made their conducting debut at IWU in 2017, directing Menotti's The Medium.
In the summer of 2019, Andrew was a Coach/Accompanist at Opera in the Ozarks where they prepared La bohéme and served as music director for the company's education tour. A 2018 Opera Coaching Fellow at the Aspen Opera Center, they have also been a music director for productions with Great Lakes Light Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, and Prairie Fire Theatre. From 2014-2017, and again in 2023, Andrew was a member of the collaborative piano staff at the renowned Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.
They are currently finishing the Doctor of Music in Collaborative Piano program at IU, studying with Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson. Andrew is researching innovation in the programming of art song literature for their dissertation. They hold a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Voice from Northern Illinois University. Their teachers and mentors have included Anita Pontremoli, Linda Jones, Walter Huff, William Koehler, and Dana Brown.