Andrew Dudley, Music

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Nothing stops this music student

"I absolutely love the Music program at Vanier!"

When you ask Music student Andrew Dudley what he loves most about Vanier, his answer is immediate. "I love my teachers! I was accepted at another Cegep as well as Vanier, and it was hard to choose between the two. But I chose Vanier because I'd be studying piano with Julia Gavrilova. I absolutely love the Music Program at Vanier!"

Nothing stops Andrew

Andrew started playing the piano at age seven, barely two years after he underwent several operations for a brain tumour that left him partially blind. "I have not let my disability bring me down," says Andrew who also plays the guitar and the tuba. You'd certainly never suspect Andrew has any kind of disability because in spite of all the hours of music practice demanded by the Music program, Andrew has also done a lot of volunteer work while in Cegep.

Volunteer work and studies

"I started something new at Vanier. I put on private concerts for intellectually handicapped individuals who are part of the West Montreal Readaptation Centre On Campus Program at Vanier. For an hour every week, they come to listen to me play piano for them." Andrew has also been a peer tutor in music theory and ear training, worked as an assistant piano technician who helps maintain the Music Department's pianos, and helped out during Open House. He also volunteered during MusicFest Québec when more than 5000 students from all over the province came to Vanier to compete at the four day festival.

Singing in the Vanier Choir

"But my biggest undertaking as a volunteer at Vanier was participating in the Vanier College Choir. It was very intense and demanding. In 2011, we performed La Terra Promessa, a very difficult choral work. It's contemporary music that is dissonant and very difficult to learn."

More volunteer work in the community

"I also entertain at the Herron House Senior's Residence, where I play piano for the residents every three weeks. I play anything and everything. It all sounds good on the piano," he says with a laugh. "But it's therapeutic for people to have a young person come in, and to move to a different room for a concert. People like it. I hear nice comments like, "Oh we're happy, Andrew's on the calendar this month" or "Hope you come back."

Getting oriented and organized

Because he is partially blind, things are not simple for Andrew, but help is available. For instance, he enlarges his sheet music 120%, and when he first came to Vanier from Lindsay Place High school, the Montreal Association for the Blind assessed him and gave him a tour around the college to help him get oriented within his new physical surroundings. He also got in touch with Irma Mazzonna, who is "the" person to contact for students with physical disabilities who have special needs.

Despite these hurdles, Andrew never lets anything stop him or slow him down. "I always try my best and look at the positive things in life. I attribute much of the success I have had to the people who help me and to my own yearning for success."

More outgoing now

Has Cegep changed him? "Definitely," he says. "It has made me more outgoing and less reserved and opened my eyes to other experiences and different kinds of people. And I have made new friends here. Vanier was truly the right choice for me."

Using music to help others

"After obtaining a music degree from McGill, I plan to do an undergraduate certificate in Music Therapy, then a Masters at Concordia University. I learned about their program when I went to a workshop at Concordia on music therapy. That immediately appealed to me. To be able to play music and improve people's lives through music, that would be marvelous!"

There is no doubt, nothing will stop this young man, winner of the 2012 Lieutenant Governor General (of Quebec) youth medal and the 2011/2012 Alan Liddiard Memorial Fund Scholarship!