Andrew F. Simpson

Andrew F. Simpson — Principal Violist | Orchestral Audition Specialist
With a professional career spanning over 45 years across Europe and North America, I bring firsthand experience from the world’s great concert halls directly to my students.
Since 1978 I have been an active performer as orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist. I have held the position of Solo Viola (Principal Violist) with some of Europe’s finest orchestras, including the NDR Hannover, WDR Funkhaus Orchester Köln, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, and for 37 years Sinfonie Orchester Aachen.
My own training was shaped by some of the greatest violists of the 20th century,  among them William Primrose, Georg Janzer, and Gerald Stanick giving me a deep foundation in both the technical and interpretive demands of the instrument.
For over 20 years I have focused my teaching on intermediate and advanced violists preparing for professional orchestral auditions. My students have successfully auditioned for orchestras in Germany, Canada, and the United States. I know exactly what audition committees are listening for,  because I have been one.
My teaching covers the full scope of audition preparation: core orchestral repertoire and excerpts, sight-reading as a competitive skill, performance psychology, and the unwritten expectations of professional audition culture that most teachers simply don’t know.
If you are serious about winning an orchestral position, I can give you the edge that only comes from decades inside the profession.

Many violists prepare for auditions the way they prepare for a concert. In my experience, this is one of the most common and costly mistakes a candidate can make.
A concert and an audition are fundamentally different performances. The mindset, the preparation strategy, the way you manage nerves, repertoire presentation, and even how you walk into the room. All of it requires a specific and deliberate approach that concert preparation simply does not teach you.
My lessons are built around this distinction. We work not only on the technical and musical demands of the repertoire, but on the complete audition experience.  How to perform under blind audition conditions, how to pace preparation in the weeks leading up to the day, how to present excerpts with clarity and confidence to a committee that may hear dozens of candidates, and how to turn sight-reading from a liability into a genuine advantage.
This is not general viola teaching. It is specialist preparation for one specific high-stakes goal: winning a professional orchestral position.
I am direct, thorough, and honest in my feedback because that is what serious candidates need and deserve.