Happy Clients
““Firstly I would just like to say what a great time I had on this induction course. I felt it was a really creative course and the artists were superb. I learnt more as the course progressed, and I particularly enjoyed the last day with the session on jazz harmony.””
Julian Joseph - Vice President of The National Youth Jazz Collective, Jazz Virtuoso Pianist, Composer, Educator, and BBC Jazz Broadcaster
"Andrew Robb is a musician of great depth and insight. His playing holds the very essence of musicality which he’s acquired through the discipline, contemplation and practice of jazz. The philosophies in Jazz have universal truths relevant in life and Andrew communicates these philosophies with practical skills to aid instrumental practice and gain a greater connection to music of all styles.
His workshops are clear, visceral and stimulating demonstrating that music is a language expressed at its most powerful through improvisation. Andrew understands how to lead students into the freedom of improvisation to reveal truths and deeper expressiveness in jazz, classical, rock or what ever may be your preferred musical style."
Sahana Gero MBE, Artistic Director at The World heart beat Music Academy
"Andrew Robb was highly recommend to me by musicians of great standing when he first started to do workshops at World Heart Beat Music Academy.
His workshops were engaging with great clarity and the students were excited and immediately improved.
His insightful workshop style meant that when dealing with musics of different genres he was able to get to the heart of their strengths and weaknesses. He then could immediately adapt his programme to have them thriving happy and learning lots.
Andrew Robb’s skills as a jazz musician versatile in the vernaculars of a variety of musical styles means he’s uniquely well placed to bring that knowledge to his wonderful workshops. Appropriate for all ages his improvisation workshops transform students interested in delving deeper into what music has to offer as players and human beings."
Joan Gibson - Former Chief executive of The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland and The National Youth Choirs of Scotland
"Andrew is an accomplished, versatile and creative musician/educator who understands well the benefits of music education.
Andrew has been engaged on a number of occasions to run workshops as part of NYOS Training Ensembles courses. The aim of the workshops was to introduce young string players to the world of improvisation. Andrew’s workshops were well constructed and the young students learnt a great deal about how to improvise, play their instruments with more confidence and play without printed music - something often lacking in instrumental teaching.
Andrew has a natural ability to deliver in a calm and friendly manner and shares his passion with the students making the sessions fun and relaxed but with clear goals. Students quickly produce fantastic results and are able to perform confidently to an audience after only a couple of sessions."
David Gorodi –Director of Music at King’s School Bruton
"I recently asked Andrew Robb to work with several of our jazz ensembles, we have 2 quintets in a Miles Davies/Herbie Hancock mould, a New Orleans style band and a Big Band. There is a wide range of ability, some of the students are planning to read music at university whilst for others it’s just fun, ages ranged between 13-18. Andrew very quickly worked out the levels of abilities and used appropriate levels of musical terminology.
For each group there was a focus although generally it was about listening to each other. For example Andrew wanted to get students thinking about how they shaped their phrases so he asked one member of a quintet to phrase something differently and the rest of the group would have to listen and respond to the new approach to the phrase. In another group he wanted to show the impact of the way in which a number was counted in, so he asked one member of the band to count it in and everyone else play not just in the tempo of the count in but also in the “feel” of it.
Andrew stepped in and gave examples, obviously working at such a high level himself the students were very impressed. There was plenty of very positive interaction between Andrew and the students, both in the smaller groups and with the Big Band.
Andrew had a lasting impact on these groups, they listen more to each other and with the most advanced group there is an openness to experiment with different approaches which wasn’t necessarily true before Andrew’s workshop.
I can recommend Andrew Robb without reservation; he is a very impressive jazz musician who interacts really well with teenagers and can work both at an advanced or elementary level."