Dr Andrew Filmer, violist, educator, and public speaker
Dr Andrew Filmer is an associate professor at Sunway University in Malaysia, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom. He has been Head of Jury of the Euroasia Association of Performing Arts Strings Competition for the better part of a decade, and facilitates talks and masterclasses across the country as an Associate of Euroasia.
Andrew holds a PhD from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a master’s in viola performance from Indiana University South Bend in the United States. He is versatile in the arts, combining his musicology training with that of viola performance and a passion for teaching. Andrew has won commendations and prizes in teaching, public speaking, research, performance, and leadership.
Andrew performs frequently as a chamber musician and narrator, with occasional roles as orchestra conductor and concerto soloist. He was Editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society and is an advisor for the Australia and New Zealand Viola Society. His research has been presented twice at Cambridge University, and he was a scholar-in-residence there in early 2023. He has presented and performed at four International Viola Congresses, across three continents, and has facilitated masterclasses and guest lectures at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK, the Elder Conservatorium in Australia, and the New Zealand School of Music.
With a dedication towards teaching, Andrew has facilitated string pedagogy workshops for Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). He has a particular interest in technology for education, and won Best Presentation for his research at the International Conference on Education and Multimedia Technology in Kyoto, Japan in 2020. Andrew has an interest in historically informed performance practice, and was part of a three-person team that constructed the first harpsichord built in Malaysia. Outside of classical music, he was a member of the New Zealand jazz band The Troubles, whose inaugural recording was released by Rattle Records.
Andrew studied with Donald Maurice and Anthony Ritchie in New Zealand, and Anthony Devroye of the Avalon Quartet in the United States. He plays on a viola by Malaysian luthier Tan Chin Seng, a modern bow by Benjamin Fabre of France, and baroque bows by Stephen Gibbs of New Zealand.