Gustavus students are known for a wide variety of interests. Extensively involved in both music and theater, Andrew Kendall is an example of a Gustie going above and beyond to pursue his passions.

After coming to Gustavus from St. Cloud, Minn, Andrew worked hard to be a part of his field of interest: music. He auditioned and became a member of both the Gustavus Choir and G-Sharp, the male a capella group on campus. Working with others and sharing the stage is important to Andrew, who believes learning from fellow artists is key to improvement.

Daniel Felton, who works with Andrew in musical bar and choir, has nothing but praise for the musician.

“He always gives 110% if he comes across a problem he can’t solve on his own, he will find a way with help to find many ways to approach it, ultimately not giving up until it is done,” Felton said.

Being involved with multiple choirs is a demanding commitment. Andrew has traveled with G-choir, including a tour of the Upper Midwest during Touring Break of 2014. He related some memories from this latest adventure.

“So we go to our host family’s house, to which our host Dad proceeded to show us his ‘Man Cave’ or basically where he hangs out away from his wife and watches 60’s sitcoms on a very old television for some reason, and later took us to his wife’s version of a man cave and after that he and his wife sat us down and explained the politics of their church and how certain people were destroying their church.”

Having no idea how to respond to this, Andrew and his roommate decided to find something to occupy their time, and eventually settled on binge watching Big Bang Theory and finally, sleeping.

His passion for music has spilled into his other interests, including theater. Andrew’s latest project has been taking on the position of assistant music director for the upcoming campus musical, Hair.

Andrew assists Michael Asmus in conducting and directing the band that will perform for the play. During the performance, Andrew will be conducting the band and giving cues.

Andrew spent up to eight hours a day during J-Term giving instruction and extra help to individual groups within the band, working hard to improve the musical’s quality. Even with such a huge time committment, Andrew still made time to practice with G-Choir and prepare for their tour. His immense effort and dedication is appreciated by fellow students working on the musical who describe Andrew as “talented” and “very fun to work with.”

A close friend and fellow music major, Madeline Cacciatore, says Andrew has a “heart of gold.” Madeline also describes him as being a very funny and very honest person.

“He’s super passionate about everything, but especially music and education.”

Andrew works for Gustavus Event Services as the sound engineer. He’s worked many high profile sound gigs, including the Brazilian Carnival. Andrew has even stayed on the position to work over the summer.

In his free time, Kendall enjoys singing at church and watching Star Trek. Friends describe him as a Star Trek expert, able to answer just about any question they can come up with on the subject.

In the future, Andrew plans to share his passion for music through teaching. His dream job is to be the director of a choir program in a rural high school, but Andrew says he would be “more than happy” to teach music at an elementary or middle school. He works every day to improve his musical skills and prepare to someday achieve his goal of becoming a teacher.

“It’s all about students, my future students.”