BIO

As a young child, Andrew Bambridge enjoyed banging on the keyboard during his first few piano lessons, acting as the “mayor” of his elementary school, and later was touched by his voice teacher’s emotional reaction to his first pop song, Why Me.  In the end, he found to bring all these things together with becoming a percussionist, actor, and composer.  

  

Percussionist:

 

Andrew’s career came into fruition at The Juilliard School’s PreCollege Division (JPC), studying percussion with Greg Giannascoli, Jonathan Haas, and Pablo Rieppi.  While in the JPC, Andrew Bambridge competed in and was selected as one of four winners of the 30th Annual VSA International Young Soloist Competition in 2014.  Winning this, he performed at the Kennedy Center and played for world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.  Andrew was also introduced to the world of “theatrical percussion” by his teacher Jonathan Haas, who told him about the percussionist-actor piece Songs I-IX by Stuart Saunders Smith.  

 

Andrew is currently studying at Rutgers University, pursuing a Master of Music in performance.  He studies percussion with Joe Tompkins, Mike Truesdell, Javier Diaz, and Ian Sullivan.  In May of 2020, he received his Bachelor of Music degree with a double concentration in composition and performance from Rutgers.  His first year as an undergraduate he entered and won the Rutgers Sinfonia Concerto Competition, and then performed Emmanuel Sejourne’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings with the orchestra in November of 2017.  

 

Composer:

 

Andrew’s music is heavily inspired by the power and emotion present in film music from his favorite movies and animated pictures.  Works of his have been performed all over the United States by ensembles including Helix! New Music Ensemble, The University of Texas at Austin LAB Orchestra, and the Juilliard PreCollege Percussion Ensemble. 

 

Andrew first formally studied composition with Eric Ewazen while at the JPC. As an undergrad at Rutgers, Andrew studied with Robert Livingston Aldridge and Tarik O'Regan. 

 

Actor:

 

Andrew is most well-known for playing the younger version of Peter Dinklage’s character “Eddie Plant” in the feature film Pixels.  His performance was praised by Roger’s Movie Nation, Minnesota Connected, and Vulture, who said he was “very good at channeling the young Dinklage.”  Since then he has also appeared on Happyish, a sitcom on Showtime with Steve Coogan and Rob Reiner. 

 

His professional acting career started after competing in the Actor’s, Model’s, and Talent for Christ (AMTC) National competition in 2010, where he took home the top male acting award at the age of 13.  There he began working with agents, but unfortunately, the reality of his situation quickly became apparent.  Andrew rarely got auditions due to his age and short stature.  It was not until four and a half years later that the audition for Pixels came.  He was ecstatic at the end of his callback when the director, Chris Columbus, said to him, “whatever you do, don’t cut your hair!”  

 

Andrew’s passion for acting grew from participating in theatrical productions.  Starting in 2nd grade, Andrew participated in countless musicals and plays at his schools and local community theater groups until he graduated from high school.  He often played comedic roles, for he enjoyed being outlandish on stage and making other people laugh.