Andrew Sean Lay

1969 - 

Andrew Lay is Contracted Customer Care Representative for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, one of three positions he has held with the orchestra since 2009. Prior to that, he taught music and Spanish at two academies in the Seventh-day Adventist school system for fifteen years.

Andrew is one of three sons of Michael J. and Marilyn E. Farley Lay. After graduating from Pine Tree Academy in Maine, he attended Atlantic Union College, graduating in 1993 with a B.M. in music education. He started working on his master's degree at Andrews University for a year and then accepted a position at Modesto Academy in California, where he taught for two years.

In 1996 Lay moved to Indiana, where he taught music and Spanish at Indiana Academy for thirteen years, the longest tenure of any music teacher since the school was founded. The academy, which is over a century old, has had 43 music teachers, the longest service before Lay's being seven years, a tenure claimed by both Harold Doering and Ben Purvis.

Lay reestablished a band and raised funds for a bell choir. In 1998 the music department moved to new quarters, a renovated older building on campus. The facility includes a small and large rehearsal area, music libraries, practice rooms, and a 400-seat auditorium. There are fifteen pianos and two organs, including a Kimball pipe organ situated in the gymnasium.

During his years at IA, at least half of the student body participated in music every year. He started a series of music festivals for grade 6-10 students, sponsored by the academy and Indiana Conference and led by guest clinicians. These were a key part of recruitment for the academy, and in Lay's later years at IA, he also worked as the assistant to the Development Director.

While at IA, Lay completed an M.Mus. in choral conducting at Andrews University in 1997 and two years later married Colleen Thompson. He has always had an interest in Maranatha activities and has taken five trips under their auspices to Latin and South America.

He began working for the Indiana Symphony Orchestra as Telecommunications Sales Representative/Annual Fund Specialist in September 2009. In 2011 he became Patron Sales Representative, a position he held until summer 2012.

Lay has been a member of the SDA Church music committee in Cicero, Indiana, and served there as an accompanist and pianist/organist. This past year he also started working with a small choir at the Second Hispanic Adventist church in Indianapolis.

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Sources: Information provided by Andrew Lay 1996-2006 and 2102; Outline of career at Linkedin.com (2012); Texas Marriage collection, 1966-2002, ancestory.com; Andrews University 2003 Alumni Directory, 259; Andrew S. Lay, "Life in a boarding academy music department; blessings and challenges," manuscript, unknown date; Listing of music teachers at IU, Indiana Academy Centennial, 1902-2002, book, 2002; personal knowledge.