ESTA Postgraduate certificate – Percussion

Who teaches the course

Head of Department – Percussion

Andy Gleadhill

A Musician, Educator, Author, Composer, Ethnomusicologist and Teacher Trainer. He has over thirty-five years’ experience as a professional Musician and Educationalist.

As a Drummer and Percussionist Andy has played with some of the leading Recording Artists and Orchestras in the world for Film, Television, and Recording Sessions as well as many West End Shows. As an Ethnomusicologist, Andy has travelled widely around the world especially in Africa, South America, South East Asia and India playing and learning about music of other cultures and regularly lectures on the Music of Diverse Cultures.

Andy Gleadhill is internationally acknowledged as a leading authority on teaching World Music. Andy has had many papers and articles published on World Music and Music Education topics and his books have been published on African Drumming, African Drumming Book Two, Indonesian Gamelan, Brazilian Samba, the Music of India, Caribbean Steel Pans, Composing with World Music, Classroom Percussion and Percussion Buddies. He wrote the chapter on Music for the recently published academic book “Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Teacher Education in Education” (Routledge 2014). Andy has worked at every level of music education from Early Years settings to Post Graduate teaching at Conservatoires and Universities around the world. For over ten years he has been, and remains, a visiting lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Bath Spa University where he teaches on the specialist secondary music PGCE course.

Andy was for many years the head of Bristol Arts and Music Service and the director of the Bristol Centre for Music and the Arts which he built into a leading music support service and where he pioneered the introduction of world music styles for class instrumental teaching, setting new standards in accessibility and inclusiveness. He went on to establish and become the first head of the Music Education Hub “Bristol Plays Music”. Andy has also served on the Music Hub Advisory Group for Arts Council England. He is a member of the Royal Society of Musicians and serves on the Executive Committee of the British Musicians’ Union. Andy has recently delivered workshops and lectures to the annual conferences of the Music Masters and Mistresses Association, the National Association of Music Educators, the Federation of Music Services, Music Mark, Music Learning Live, the Schools Music Association (ISM), the International conference on Innovation and Creativity in the Hands of the Young (Iceland), the International Conference on Arts and Humanities (Hawaii, USA), the Second International Conference on Popular Culture in Education (Hong Kong), the Schools Music Association (Incorporated Society of Musicians, U.K.), the Scottish Association of Music Educators (SAME) and Music Learning Live Asia (Singapore). Andy also works as a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Singapore, the Government of Malaysia and the Ministry of Defence Service Children’s Education (UK). He is active as a composer having had his music recorded and published as well as broadcast by the BBC. Andy has also worked as an examiner for the Guildhall school of Music and Drama and Trinity College London, has co-authored the Trinity/Guildhall Drum Kit examination syllabus and has been retained as a consultant to the ABRSM. He is currently a consultant to RSL Awards (Rockschool).

Andy now balances his work as a professional musician and Education consultant with delivering World Music Workshops, Training and Professional Development to Schools, Colleges, Universities and both music and generalist teachers around the world through his unique intensive training and bespoke mentoring schemes.

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