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The American organist and accodionist, Andre James Fry, was born to a multicultural family in Grand Forks, North Dakota. As a young child he spent his summers in central Russia with grandparents. His family later moved to the Washington, DC area. Homeschooled, his curriculum featured Latin, Russian, logic, rhetoric, and cello in addition to math and social studies topics.In 2010 Andre was accepted into the Anne Arundel Community College's "Gifted & Talented" program, where he maintained a 4.0 GPA.
Andre Fry obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Cum Laude (3.9 GPA), from the University of Maryland College Park (2012-August 2016). Honors Citation received Spring 2014. Major concentration in ethics and value theory; Minor in Greek Language and Culture. He has also extensively studied the UMD School of Music: music theory, history, and composition with his father Dr. James Fry (2014-2015, non degre), and studied pipe organ at with Dr. Theodore Guerrant (2014-2015). He has received numerous national awards for both music performance and composition.
In addition to his frequent stays in Russia, Andre Fry has also traveled to Greece, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Costa Rica. He is a fluent speaker of Russian and Esperanto and competent in Greek and Italian. In philosophy, his main focus areas are aesthetics, ethics, and existentialism, with particular interest in the works/ideas of Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Honors & Awards: U.S. Virtuoso Solo Champion of American Accordionists Association (July 2011), winning program performed in Charleston, South Carolina, consisting of original accordion works and transcriptions of piano/organ/orchestral literature; 1st Place, Elsie M. Bennett Composition Competition of American Accordionists Association (August 2013), for the original work "Scènes d'un rêve tranquille", premiered by the composer in New York City. Publications: Scènes d'un rêve tranquille (Scenes from a tranquil dream) (International Music Score Library Project, January 9, 2014). |
