Violist Andrew Braddock’s teaching and performing career has recently taken him to the Sejong Center in Seoul, South Korea, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, a solo appearance with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and the International Viola Congresses in Paris and Rotterdam.
A passionate educator, he has given masterclasses at Vanderbilt University, the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, Bowling Green State University, and many others. He teaches at Western Kentucky University (WKU) and is the co-director of the WKU String Academy. He founded and directs the Hilltop String Festival, a summer festival for students ages 12–18. He also teaches at the Indiana University Summer String Academy, where he serves as coordinator of the chamber music program and teaches viola, working alongside renowned pedagogue Mimi Zweig. His creative teaching led him to co-found Bridging Cultures with Music, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports various pedagogical and outreach programs in his community and abroad.
Research, writing, and intellectual discovery are central to his artistic mission. His writings have appeared in publications such as The Strad and the Journal of the British Music Society. He is the editor of the American Suzuki Journal, a quarterly publication of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Braddock was the editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society and served on the board of the American Viola Society. His primary areas of scholarly focus are string pedagogy and the analysis of viola music. He has given recent international and national conference presentations about the pedagogy of fundamental bow strokes, intermediate viola repertoire sequences, and the viola music of Hans Werner Henze and Betsy Jolas.
He is the principal violist of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and he regularly plays with the Nashville Symphony and the Nashville Opera. He holds degrees from Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Kentucky. His principal teachers are Atar Arad, Kathryn Plummer, and John Graham. He plays a viola made by Giovanni Pistucci, ca. 1920, and a bow by Jules Fétique, ca. 1930.
Visit his personal website for his recordings, research, and arrangements for viola: andybraddock.com