One Book, Three Instruments, & A Social life
With music, writing, and social life to juggle, Andrew Burgess ’20 has a lot on his hands but enough passion to see everything through.

Ten years ago, musician Andrew Burgess ‘20, first placed his hands on the piano keys. Since then he started to played the violin, and recently started to play the guitar. He has also been committed to writing his own book. Burgess already has a lot on his hands but somehow maintains a social life.

For Burgess, he got a lot of lessons from his teachers because he was homeschooled until the second grade. He did his classes and what he needed to do for the day then went straight to practicing his instruments. “My dad thought that if he spent his money on the best music teachers he could find, then hopefully my brother and I could get a scholarship for college so he wouldn’t have to pay for college,” Burgess said.

Andrew’s favorite songs you should listen to.

Réne Lecuona, one of Burgess’s piano teachers, taught him how to play the piano and he sees her as one of his mentors. Beforehand, his dad taught him ear training before he got to play with the instruments. Ear training helps your tone listening skills for music and helps develop a musical ear. This feeling for music Burgess has was taken from his dad. His dad, who has been a big impact on his life, is also a writer. His dad studied abroad in Miami, Ohio, studied abroad in Vilnius, Lithuania, and later worked for the Iowa Writers Workshop in Iowa City.

However, Burgess isn’t just a musician. He has also been working on a book. He plans to send that book to publishers to edit and make it better so it can hopefully be published. It’s about a teen who loses his legs and tries to continue his life without them. “ Writing a book is fun and all but also very time consuming. Trying to balance school, instruments, social life and writing can be a lot at times.” Burgess states. Ellen Moser ‘21 is one of Burgess’s close friends who is also in the process of writing a book says “Writing my book, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say but when Burgess and I started to hangout, meet at coffee shops, and help me. He helped me so much, he is really smart and reliable when it comes to writing, he can display the emotion he wants in his writing.”

Burgess was born in Iowa City. Burgess also gets his writing from his dad. Burgess has written one short story, entered it in “One Book, Two Book (by UNESCO city of literature)” and won when he was in the fifth grade. One Book Two Book’s mission is getting young talented children involved with reading and creating literature.

Burgess is hoping to finish his book in December to be published. He hopes to expand his learning skills in his instruments, and to attend Birch Creek Camp in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. Burch Creek is a higher level of learning of jazz. It is very hard to get in. You have to send a video audition and get accepted. He also hopes to get first violin in All State this year.
Moser concluded with “Andrew was always supportive no matter how busy he was, he was always there to help me weather it was writing, friend problems, boyfriend problems, family problems, or with whatever it was. He is very reliable and passionate person and that’s what I like about him.”