School of Music welcomes Andrew Voelker; new Vocal Coach and Music Director of Opera Theatre

Andrew Voelker joins the faculty of the University of Georgia’s in the fall of 2025 as vocal coach and music director of Opera Theatre at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Andrew is in demand as a vocal coach and pianist, specializing in lyric diction and contemporary score analysis, with a particular love of art song and all things sung. As an avid performer, Voelker brings a spirit for innovation and collaboration to UGA.

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.

Andrew previously served on the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam as the music director of the award-winning Crane Opera Ensemble. Highlights included the workshop and premiere of Computing Venus (Takach/Vincent), the winner of the 2024 Domenic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize, as well as stage productions including Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon and Milton Granger’s Bluebeard’s Waiting Room.

While serving as Associate Instructor of Collaborative Piano at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, Voelker coached productions of Le nozze di Figaro, La traviata, Little Women, Serse, and L'incoronazione di Poppea. In 2023, they 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.

As a pianist and opera coach at Illinois Wesleyan University, Voelker made their conducting debut in 2017 in Menotti's The Medium, and directed productions including Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Trial by Jury. In recent summers, Andrew has been a Coach/Accompanist at Opera in the Ozarks where they prepared La bohéme and Carmen, and studio opera outreach tours. A 2018 Opera Coaching Fellow at the Aspen Opera Center, Voelker has directed music for productions with Great Lakes Light Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, and Prairie Fire Theatre. For five years, Andrew was a member of the collaborative piano staff at the renowned Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.

Andrew received the Doctor of Music degree in Collaborative Piano at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the mentorship of Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson. 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. Andrew is thankful to have trained with amazing mentors including Anita Pontremoli, Linda Jones, Walter Huff, Charles Prestinari, Gary Arvin, William Koehler, and Dana Brown.