About Me

Whether performing on the piano, teaching, or dreaming up community-driven experiences, Andrew Barnwell is almost always working at one keyboard or another.

Onstage, Andrew finds chamber music especially invigorating and is a founding member of Trio Gaia. The trio is New England Conservatory’s most recent Trio-in-Residence and is a national and international award-winning ensemble dedicated to inviting audiences into conversation through chamber music. Recent performances have brought Andrew to chamber music series, schools, and venues across the Eastern United States and to the Agassiz Chamber Music Festival in Winnipeg, Canada. As a soloist, Andrew has solo recitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island this season and will be giving a duo recital with violinist Emma Powell this summer. He has appeared with the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and has presented numerous recitals around Boston through NEC’s Community Performances and Partnerships initiative.

Outside of performing, Andrew developed a love early in his career for community building and event planning. This passion launched projects that have reached over 2,000 people, including “In Good (ac)Company,” a 5-day virtual concert series in response to the pandemic that presented 13 randomly paired duos of NEC students and alumni. To balance his creative and analytical sides, Andrew stepped into the role of Development Manager for Boston Opera Collaborative, a company invested in intimate productions that bring audiences face-to-face with the power of the human voice, and most recently became a volunteer for Moishe House, an organization that forms tightly knit communities of young Jewish adults through social and educational gatherings.

Born in Massachusetts, he began his piano studies with Heather Rogers Riley before relocating with his family to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he studied with Søren Pedersen. Andrew attended high school in Seattle, Washington, and was first a student of Mark Salman before joining the studio of Dainius Vaičekonis, and later, renowned pedagogue Robin McCabe. Andrew has earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Victor Rosenbaum and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein.

When devoid of to-dos, Andrew can usually be found searching street-by-street for the best bakeries and consignment stores—recommendations are gladly accepted!