We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Koutroubas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on in the most general sense is a project called Silentwoods Collective. This project is a collective of musicians who are passionate about providing rich cultural offerings for communities, and fair wage opportunities for artists. The idea of Silentwoods was born from my exposure to live music and how it changed my life at a young age.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Andrew Koutroubas and I’m a musician, I mostly play the cello, but I play some other instruments too; like the Cretan lyra, bouzouki, viola da gamba, banjo, guitar and bagpipes.

I was first introduced to and fell in love with playing the cello when I was 12 years old. I grew up in a very rural part of Southern New Hampshire, and when I was in grades 1-4 I was a demon child. My parents sent me to a private school in grade 5 hoping to straighten me out. There, I discovered the cello and an incredibly supportive and nurturing music teacher, Sharlie Hawkins. Also around that same time, I discovered the guitar and started jamming with my friends from the McElreavy clan. We eventually formed a heavy metal band and called it “Omniverse”.

In high school, I took cello gigs wherever I could – I played weddings, parties, local restaurants the Wilton Town Hall Theater, and would every beg my dad to drive me down to Boston to street perform at the Boston Common and the Park Street T station every now and then. Money was tight and I did chores and house work for my cello teacher in exchange for cello lessons for a while. The shop that my parents rented my cello from eventually went out of business and Glynn Graham incredibly generously and graciously loaned me a beautiful cello (built by her brother!) which I still have to this day! By the time I was 17, I was earning some decent money – I had a thriving studio of cello students and played regularly with New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra, Nashua Chamber Orchestra, and Southern New Hampshire Youth Symphony Orchestras. My band Omniverse was picking up too, we played some dive bars around Southern New Hampshire, Mass and Rhode Island (always with “X’s” drawn in sharpie on our hands by the bouncer). Some of us formed another band along the way called “Unwritten”.

I went on to major in cello performance at a music conservatory in Boston, Longy School of Music, and later studied historical performance at the Juilliard School in New York City. I just turned 30 and I’ve been thinking a lot about my past. I realize how lucky I was to be exposed to music when I was young. It changed my entire life. It became my life.

I love being a musician. I’ve always loved service and helping others too. As a musician, you get to help people in a very special and unique way. There’s nothing like being a part of performing a big huge piece of music with an army of musicians and singers for hundreds or thousands of listeners. You’re initiating the echoes of our collective past which reverberate in their bodies, and souls. I even really enjoy playing the string quartet wedding gigs (most of the time). The atmosphere and party vibe we can bring to a room is something that leaves everyone, including me, smiling for the rest of the night. The wonder you can bring a child, or the joy and nostalgia you can bring to the elderly. This is the real stuff of life. These are the things I never want to loose sight of and that I never want to stop bringing to folks.

My mission as a person, and it’s really no different than the mission of Silentwoods Collective, is to reach out to and touch peoples lives through music. To spread inspiration, hope and harmony. Whether its Bach, heavy metal or anything in between.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think people and businesses should invest heavily in arts education programs of all kinds whether municipal or community run especially in underserved areas.

We all need to make a lifestyle change: write and call our local elected officials everyday and demand greater funding for the arts in schools and in public life.

Not only does live music benefit social, emotional and physical health, I believe it can deliver a more discerning public. I think this latter point is as important as we find ourselves in a time when the public seems to be losing its ability to judge right from wrong.

I think different segments of society have different duties. The federal government is failing us epically. The Paris Opera has about the same size budget as the entire NEA.

But artists also have a duty to their communities and have more power than they realize in many cases.

I think society, especially artists themselves as part of society generally speaking, need to work together to help create thriving ecosystems in which they themselves can thrive. Working together to involve the community is very important. I ponder what this looks like in practice all the time. I usually end up having more questions than answers.

We ought to consume less too. Dopamine deficits from less frequent instant gratification could be good for art and foster a more inquisitive/curious public.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Until just a few years ago I felt a lot of pessimism about life as a musician. “I’m not good enough, I don’t have the right personality, “success” as a musician is a pipedream” were daily refrains in my mind. While my parents were very supportive, some other family and friends were not. Eventually though, I looked deeply inward and fell back on my love for the process, my love for music, for progress. I decided I have to do this because it brings me joy and fulfilment and if someone doesn’t like that, bye-bye! I discovered fulfillment and contentedness are among the most important things to hold onto and to invest in in life. Learning that lesson really helped me find greater confidence in my decision to purse a career in music and it helped push my own music making abilities to another level. Also being pushed to audition at Juilliard and getting accepted there helped my confidence in a big way. I have my wonderful baroque cello teacher, Phoebe Carrai to thank for that – thanks Phoebe!

Contact Info:

• Website: andrewkoutroubas.com / silentwoodscollective.com
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/silentwoodscollective

Image Credits

Mei Stone