Beer to Concertmaster Position

Congratulations to violinist Andrew Beer ’06 MM, ’07 GD, a former student of Donald Weilerstein, who has been named Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand.

Born in Vancouver in 1982, Andrew began his studies on violin at the age of five, and his principal teachers were Lawrie Hill, Gwen Thompson, Gerald Stanick, Ani Kavafian and Donald Weilerstein. He received a BA magna cum laude from Stony Brook University, before coming to NEC. He served as a performing and teaching fellow at Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School from 2007-2008, and since September 2008 he has held the post of second assistant principal of the second violins in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He performs on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, made in 1845.

As a soloist, he has performed with leading orchestras in Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Boston and Catania (Sicily), with conductors including Joseph Silverstein, Gil Rose, Victor Feldbrill and Daisuke Soga. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Banff, Orford, Domaine Forget, Tanglewood, Aspen, Music@Menlo and Prussia Cove festivals, and has appeared in concert with Midori and members of the Emerson String Quartet. Contemporary music has played a large role in Andrew's musical life, and he has worked closely with some of the leading composers of our time on their solo and chamber works, including Pierre Boulez, Mario Davidovsky, György Kurtág and Steve Reich.

Andrew was the winner of concerto competitions at NEC and Stony Brook University, and was a prize-winning laureate at the Monte Carlo “Violin Masters” international competition in Monaco, and the “Dr. Luis Sigall” competition in Chile. Humanitarian and outreach concerts have also played an important role in his musical output, and through such endeavours he was awarded a U.S. Congressional Commendation in 2006.