LET’S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING
Only the luckiest people in the world get to turn their hobbies into careers. Andrew’s fifth grade graduation yearbook read: “Future Job: Musician.” Two years later, an English class assignment asked the same question, and Andrew stated that his future dreams were to become a famous architect, but have a room in his mansion for his Steinway Grand Piano. The roller coaster ride of being a musician was already in effect.
Starting piano lessons in first grade where he was classically trained, but once able to read music and soon given the option to play both the classics and whatever else he could read, Andrew immediately took the opportunity to play musical theatre. It was thrilling to learn to play the vocal selections from Fiddler on the Roof, which incidentally was the first Broadway show he saw (starring Chaim Topol as “Tevye”). It was even more thrilling to assistant music direct Peter Pan in middle school (and only getting the job by asking – a very valuable lesson, if you believe in yourself enough that you can do it).
Andrew continued his extracurricular drama career as the business manager, treasurer, vice president, and president for his high school drama club, The Royal Crown Players Website (RCP). The best part of RCP was assistant music directing the musicals, and in his spring senior production, he took the advice of his theatre teacher and did the most terrifying thing possible: audition for a role. He ended up as Roger in Grease!. In hindsight, he realized what great advice this was: whether you’re an actor, or an assistant stage manager running back-and-forth to Starbucks, you learn more about theatre with each different position you have on a show. In fact, the coffee runner may garner more information than anyone else. Plus they usually get free coffee. 😉
RCP had won Andrew over his freshman year of high school; He was going to do theatre for a living. But even a freshman is programmed to think…Ridiculous! Theatre? Music? As a living? Nearly everyone from his high school class went into finance or law, or something that when asked about what they do, translates to “makes a lot of money and is settled for life.” Realistic. He was the artist. He was going to be the one star. The one who defied all the odds. Unrealistic, but the envy of his peers. Okay… how?
Andrew luckily had seven years to figure it out. Those seven years were full of music and musical theatre. (And theory, history, composition, orchestration, arranging, musicology, gigs, benefits, and all of the other good stuff that comes along with being a student performer, although not a performance major). He quite clearly decided to major in music at his undergrad, Brown University (B.A., Music – Theory, Composition, and History), receiving from the Department, the top award given to one graduating senior. Additionally, the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, in which Andrew was immensely involved, gave their top award for Musical Theatre, not to a departmental major, which was always the case, but in rare form, to Andrew.
What was wonderful about Brown, and what is wonderful about so many schools is the number of school-sponsored faculty productions AND student-run productions he was able to do, and that so many others are able to do at other colleges and Universities. Both offered tremendously wonderful theatre to be a part of, and tons to learn, yet in entirely different capacities. Andrew realized that being an artist is being a lifelong student – if you want to be at the top of your game, making the A-list, you have to put in more than “just what’s expected from you.”
College made it clear, although not any less nerve-racking, that music, was going to be his profession. Like everyone else, there were those doubts and questions, fears and pressures, and constant worries. They didn’t get easier along the way, even when they seemed like they were about to. There were hurdles. There were extreme highs, and there were times when he almost left the business. But the joys beat the downsides. Every great artist will tell you the same thing about ups and downs, the number of times he thought about different careers, and how there is no “set path in this industry.” Read any biography or auto-biography of anyone you admire. Whomever you decide to read about will have something to say about an mentioned earlier… “How do I support myself financially?” If you truly want to do this, Andrew figured, you’ll make it work. If YOU truly want to do this, YOU’LL make it work.
LUCK BE A LADY
By his mid-teens, Andrew was accompanying singers, and they were asking for advice on their performances. He was, in fact, starting to become a vocal coach. Andrew was encouraged by the singers with whom he was working, receiving compliments on his beneficial advice, as well as his encouraging and sensitive demeanor. By the time he left Brown, he had vocally coached, music directed, and accompanied well over a dozen musicals and for a variety of different singers, one-on-one sessions: now he had vocal coached 200 singers in a career that was largely academic.
Encouraged by Oskar Eustis (at the time Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Theatre, and Brown University Clinical Professor of Theatre), and currently the Artistic Director of The New York Public Theatre/Joe Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park, Andrew enrolled in an outreach course, where Brown University students would split up into four teams, go to Providence elementary schools twice a week, teach the 4th graders the musical Annie Jr., and then, as a grand finale, have the students bussed to the Tony Award winning Trinity Repertory Theatre to perform their version of Annie on the stage (which was running its professional company’s version of Annie). As a huge bonus, the authors of Annie were in attendance for these performances. In addition to travelling to the Providence schools, the Brown Students attended a seminar taught by Professor Eustis, which often featured guests from the Broadway industry.
Not only did this course remind Andrew’s about his past work with different age groups, but it confirmed a thought he had been toying with for quite some time: teaching music. After Andrew was encouraged by the elementary school students, further encouragement came his way when the composer of Annie, Charles Strouse, walked up to him after he had heard Andrew music direct and accompany a show, and said: “You got exactly what I was going for.” He pointed out, that like him at the same age, Andrew had “stars in his eyes.” Stephen Sondheim’s collaborator James Lapine came up to Andrew after seeing a show that Andrew had co-written about Brown University, to tell him how wonderful it was. And Sondheim himself told Andrew that he, too, reminded him of himself when he was Andrew’s age. Andrew expressed to Sondheim his enormous connection to his show Merrily We Roll Along, and Sondheim strengthened that connection by responding with a quotation from Merrily that all artists should heed (read on first). As we often feel stuck, scared, not good enough, lonely, and so on, we MUST DROP THAT FROM OUR MINDS OR WE’LL NEVER MOVE FORWARD… SOMEONE HAS TO BE THE NEXT BIG STAR… WHY SHOULDN’T IT BE YOU? IT’S YOUR TURN TO STOP HIDING, AND DO WHAT SONDHEIM TOLD ANDREW TO DO:
“Open Those Doors!”
RAIN ON MY PARADE
This all may sound like a dream come true. And I truly believe if you work hard enough and you really really really want to do this, there is no doubt in my mind that you can. I don’t believe that luck plays a role in this industry. It can only get you so far until someone catches on. If you “get a lucky break” and have no talent to back it up, then you are through. Believing that some people are “lucky” already gives you an excuse to fail, which is EXACTLY what every artist’s brain jumps to before he/she even walks on to the stage. “Talent” is what you need, although the word has a connotation of genetics, and therefore you could just say that you weren’t born with the correct DNA to be in this field. Artists love to find excuses. What you really need is to tattoo yourself with the quote: “YOU make the decision that you CAN DO THIS, and YOU WILL SUCCEED.” *[Note, I am not advocating getting a tattoo]. There is no set path, and everyone is going to have his/her own advice and opinion on your work. “Who cares, so what?”
There were teachers who blatantly told Andrew that other students were more talented than he was. He was once taken aside and virtually lectured the following, verbatim (names have been changed): “Sammy is just more talented than you are. You are talented. But he can do everything you can, at least as well as you can, and act and sing. So enough already. Get over it.” That’s spending your whole life at a company – dedicated to your work, top of your game, the one everyone goes to if they have a question, and then being told by someone you deeply admire, after forty years, “we’re letting you go… we’re restructuring.” Well, maybe that was that teacher’s problem. TAKE IT FROM WHERE IT COMES!
There were professors who told Andrew that he should pursue composition. A few informed him later that he shouldn’t. One said, “I don’t think you should pursue your writing. Stick to the musical directing. I’m not really sure about this writing stuff for you.” Another professor, upon asking for a recommendation for graduate school responded: “I’ll write you a recommendation, but there’s no chance in hell that you’re gonna get accepted.” There was the double-major in psychology … just in case. (That was dropped). There was the research of a Master’s Degree in Education, the application to be a bus driver for the MTA, the bartending idea, the real estate license idea……… AND THEN, right after grad. school, the first huge job: playing at one of the most prestigious regional theaters in the country. Andrew would be working with an entire Broadway cast on three separate shows. He’d be in an actual pit! With twenty musicians! Professional lighting and sound designers! This was unbelievable. Until he got there. To save space (although Andrew is more than happy to discuss the experience), he’ll jump the crux of the story: the musical director hated him, and had a replacement flown in overnight to take his position. Andrew was getting ready for the dress rehearsal of the first show. He didn’t know he was that bad. No one even told him anything. (Well the yelling and screaming of the music director may have been a red flag, but he thought that could just be his personality). The artistic director knew that there was something amiss with the musical director, and didn’t want to fire Andrew. He let him stay to play for the rest of the season, but Andrew couldn’t. He was destroyed. He couldn’t stay there and look at the actors. They all knew he was fired because he wasn’t good enough and he wasn’t prepared. Andrew knew he wasn’t ready. And he had to face the consequences. He got through it professionally unscathed, but not emotionally. He thought about being an architect. He just didn’t want to do the math involved in getting the degree. OR was he going to let one person ruin his dream. One person. He learned his lesson, and worked harder. He would never let anything like this happen again. Yes, you shouldn’t learn your lessons after the fact, but Andrew got lucky. He would forever be a student. That must be your approach as an Artist. You are a student for life, forever learning and honing your craft. And incidentally, the teacher who told him that Sammy was better? All that teacher does now is say how talented Andrew is, and how he wishes he had his life. He is in awe of Andrew, and vice versa, for he is one of Andrew’s key mentors. He taught him skills that no one else ever did. The teacher who told him to write, not write, then stick to being a musical director, is in awe of Andrew’s talents as a writer now. And when Andrew got into grad. school, suddenly “no chance in hell” was erased from that teacher’s mind, and “I knew it! I told you so!,” was his/her response. But everyone Andrew was dealing with was an artist. Think of what you put yourself through. Projecting onto others is not wise, but at least you now have an example of the craziness that goes through everyone’s mind. You’re not alone – believe in yourself, support others, but don’t worry about their paths, their awards, resumes, etc. This is your life, and there’s no book to tell you how to become what you want to be in this field. You are in a field with 100% freedom to be yourself. Who could ask for anything more?
PUT ON A HAPPY FACE!
One of the places Andrew worked, was City Lights Youth Theatre, where he taught musicianship, musical theatre, choral singing, voice, and served as a vocal coach and musical director, for 3rd through 12th grade students. Most of his students came from underprivileged families and schools, however some were private paying students. The blatant socioeconomic gap that existed between these two groups was shocking. On the whole, it was clear that the ones who were on scholarship lacked the necessities that the paying ones had. A paying student never rushed to Andrew, after class was done, with a crumpled and ripped application to LaGuardia High School (for example), and ask for him to look it over, and then pick an audition song to perform the next day. The paying students had been working on this for ten years. What could he do, but stay as late as the building would let him, photocopy applications so they weren’t crumpled, go through the City Lights music library, and do his best to grab the best song he could find for the student, and coach him/her as quickly as possible, so he could get to the next 18 students, all lining up for the same reason.*
Ten or so jobs were whittled down to two: teaching at Montclair State University and Brown University. Finally it was just Brown University. Encouragement worked the same way with college students (and faculty)! He also had to keep encouraging himself and stay surrounded by those who encouraged him. He was a vocal coach, musical theatre writer, and music director who drove back to New York every Friday evening, to work all weekend with his vocal students AND write the next Broadway showstopper, and then return to Providence on Monday to teach at Brown. It was hectic, tiring, annoying, and an absolute dream. He was teaching musical theatre history, music theory, musical theatre writing, music directing, and all other University-musical theatre work, and also teaching at the Brown/Trinity Graduate MFA Acting and Directing Program. It was a dream to work toward your dream, while actually having a dream. Well, his office was 180 miles from his home. And he had two rents to pay. And he could never see his friends. But he was making a path for himself. But he believed, and still believes, it was the best thing he could have been doing then. Sometimes life takes you in other directions and then you change your course. But you can never stop believing in yourself, and that can only happen if you are encouraged. ONCE AGAIN – ONLY SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF. That is the key to your success, and the most important push to keep you going during your career. You will want to work harder, and naturally, you will grow and grow as a musician. Strict disciplinarian teachers only turn would-be musicians away from music. Encouraging teachers keep their students wanting to learn, striving to get a thorough arts education, not needing to be reminded to practice, and remembering the joy that got them to this point in the first place. My studio solely runs on the latter. Oh, and by the way, I don’t believe that there is such a thing as being “tone deaf.” In fact, I can prove it to you. 
- As there is a tremendous lack of opportunities for voice students to receive the same advantages as other voice students, The Andrew Hertz Musicianship Award — an all-expense paid scholarship for the Andrew Hertz Music College Prep Method – will be given to one student each academic year. More information will be posted about the scholarship as it becomes available.