Andy Johnston

Andy Johnston directs the Drury University Chamber Orchestra, where he also coaches the Drury String Ensemble and teaches Applied Violin and Viola. Andy graduated from Oklahoma State University, where he majored in music education and violin performance. He holds a Master of Music degree in viola performance from Missouri State University, and he has done additional graduate work at Texas Tech University. He has been teaching music since 1987.

Andy directed the Springfield Youth Symphony from 2011-2024. He retired from teaching orchestra in Springfield Public Schools, where he taught at Glendale High School and many elementary schools. Andy has served as per-course faculty at Missouri State University in 2006 and in 2014 in Applied Viola and Applied Violin. In addition to teaching and conducting, Andy is active as a professional violist and violinist. He is a member of the American String Teachers Association, serving as president of the Missouri chapter from 2021-2022; and he is a member of the Missouri Music Educators Association, where he served as vice-president from 2006 to 2008. He also served on the MSHSAA Music Advisory Committee and the board of the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education. Before coming to Springfield in 1997, Andy taught in the Enid, Oklahoma Public Schools and served as concertmaster of the Enid Symphony Orchestra.

Andy was named Springfield Public Schools Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015. Missouri American String Teachers Association named Andy Outstanding Teacher for Secondary Schools in 2016. In 2020, he was named Missouri State University’s Outstanding Music Alumnus.
He enjoys working as a stringed instrument repair technician at Ernie Williamson Music, and he enjoys spending time with his wife Elizabeth, a professional violinist who is the conductor of the Springfield Junior Youth Symphony, and their grown children Allison (a violinist and teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma) and Benjamin (a cellist and an operatic tenor).