Andrew Bernard received his bachelor of music and bachelor of arts degrees from Oberlin College, majoring in piano performance and pre-med. He went on to earn both the masters and doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Washington, where he was a student of Abraham Kaplan.

His graduate research on Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony was named co-winner of the Julius Herford Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in choral music in 1990 by the American Choral Directors Association.

Before entering the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 1994, Andrew held various positions as music director, conductor and soloist in congregations and community organizations, including Temple De Hirsch Sinai, First United Methodist Church and the Community Sing-Along Messiah, all in Seattle, and as student cantor at Temple Beth Emeth in Wilmington, Delaware. He has been an active participant in many professional, community and charitable organizations. From 1980–1985, he served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Seattle Pro Musica Singers and Chamber Orchestra.

Andrew was invested as a cantor and received the master of sacred music degree in the spring of 1998. His masters project, a basic music theory textbook to teach the Jewish prayer modes, has been integrated into the cantorial training at the HUC–JIR School of Sacred Music in New York.

He serves on the Union for Reform Judaism’s Joint Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living, and is one of the authors of a Jewish music curriculum that was published by the American Conference of Cantors.