About Andy

Andrew Mark Sauerwein has been studying, teaching, and composing music for three decades.  He has written over seventy works in various genres, from solo and chamber works to choral and orchestral pieces, as well as songs, improvisatory works, electronic music, and pieces combining Western instruments with Balinese gamelan.  His music has been performed on the concert stage, in churches, schools, conferences and public events, mission trips, homes, pubs and coffee shops, and annually on Belhaven University’s Singing Christmas Tree.  His work has traveled across the United States and to Canada, Israel, Peru, and Japan. 

Sauerwein’s compositional voice varies with the topic and occasion, yet he consistently favors an integrated musical language over a blend of disparate elements — eccentric, perhaps, rather than eclectic — fusing together the familiar and the mysterious in search of calm intensity, pensive wonder, thoughtful curiosity, and a subtle sense of playful humor. The resulting pieces address a variety of themes and circumstances, as even a few examples will illustrate: Sleep Songs, a brief cycle for soprano, interprets the odd imagery of folklore lullabies from five different cultural traditions; the set of Seven Relativistic Etudes, for piano, employ a cerebral musical language for a series of vivid character pieces, in order to challenge certain attitudes toward interpretation; Lord God, the Holy Ghost is a fiery setting of a Lutheran Pentecost hymn-text; Sakharoviana, for violin, piano, and percussion, explores the world of nuclear physics and fusion reactors; and the jazz song In the Interim muses on the ordinary yet profound beauty of being happily married.  He has persistent interests in fathoming the nature of creative activity and fostering a communal, collaborative, and thoughtful approach to music-making.

Sauerwein holds a Ph.D. in composition from Duke University, MMus and BMus degrees in composition from the University of Oregon, and an AA in Biblical Studies from Multnomah Bible College (Portland, OR). After teaching music theory part-time at Duke and working as a Visiting Professor at Northwestern College of Iowa, he joined the faculty at Belhaven University in 2005.  Teaching credits at Belhaven include Music Theory, Musicianship, Introduction to Compositional Process, Form & Analysis, Counterpoint, Survey of New Music, Songwriting, Jazz Theory and History, studio composition lessons, Composers Forum, Seminar in Musical Aesthetics, and Music Appreciation. He is the founding director of BU’s composition program, oversees the theory and musicianship curriculum, and occasionally teaches in the Honors Program.  In 2019 he received a Teacher Award from the Mississippi Humanities Council.  He served as Music Department Chair between June 2020 and June 2022.    

Sauerwein was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda in 1992.  He has been an active member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (www.cfamc.org) since 1998, including term appointments as President and Secretary of the Board.  The Mississippi Arts Commission awarded him two Artist Fellowships (2013 and 2023).  In 2016 he helped establish Redeemer Community Arts (a ministry of Redeemer Church in Jackson, MS) and co-founded the New Music Jackson Festival in 2017.