Music Educator · K–12 and Beyond
Andrew Bajorek
Sing Say Dance Play
Teacher, conductor, and researcher with musical emancipation as his north star — equipping K–12 students, the teachers who teach them, and the ensemble directors they go on to play for, to be musically active for the rest of their lives.
Teacher Conductor Researcher
Director · World's Most Dangerous Volleyball Band
With the Gators after the win over Auburn Lemerand Center, University of Florida November 2016
What I do
Music is the campus's front porch.
Music's full presence on a school campus, and out into the community it serves — be it directing athletic bands, conducting concert ensembles, or teaching across the spectrum: methods for future music educators, music appreciation and the history of popular music for the gen-ed students who fill the other seats. Music as something students live inside, not a museum to tour through. Skills built across years on the field, the podium, and the classroom — and a methodology grounded in current research.
Athletic Bands
The bands you hear at sporting events — pep band at basketball or volleyball, marching band on Friday night — are the campus's “front porch.” Not music for music students; music as the school's open invitation to everyone in earshot. I direct the Mesa Brass Band, the Maverick Sound Basketball Pep Band, and the Maverick Stampede Marching Band (134 members); founded the CMU Concert Band; and previously directed the UF Gator Volleyball Band — the World's Most Dangerous Volleyball Band.
Recruitment & retention dashboardConducting
Wind-ensemble and concert-band podium across school, university, and community settings. Score study, rehearsal craft, and a steady hand on the formal-concert side of the program — paired with the conducting-fundamentals course I teach for pre-service educators.
Conducting samplesTeaching
Methods sequences for future music educators — paired with the general-education courses that put music in front of every student on campus: Music Appreciation, History of Popular Music, and (back at UF) the humanities-core seminar What is the Good Life? Seventeen university courses in all, plus full K–12 supervisory experience and a 100% post-graduation placement rate for the music-ed majors I've supervised.
Full teaching recordZoltán Kodály
"Only the best is good enough for the child."
Working philosophy
Looking for the music ed resources?
Course pages, syllabi, and the five focus areas — improvisation, process teaching, counting systems, country dancing, and ensembles — live under Teaching.