ABOUT

Dr. Drew X Coles is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, serial entrepreneur, and educator. Drew serves as an applied lessons instructor, ensemble facilitator, and lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University. Drew also teaches music entrepreneurship at the Manhattan School of Music, and serves as the program director for the Music Business Program at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam. His scholarly interests include; the construct of success as it applies to post-secondary music students, culturally responsive pedagogy in the music classroom, the use of technology in the applied studio, Jazz pedagogy, improvisation pedagogy, comprehensive musicianship coursework and curricula, and quantitative research methods in music education.

Drew holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam, a Masters degree in Jazz Performance from Queens College of the City University of New York, and an M.B.A. from the Metropolitan College of New York. Drew earned his Doctorate in Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University after defending his dissertation on the perceptions among musicians on the construct of career success. Additionally, Drew holds a certificate in strategic management from the International Business Management Institute based in Berlin, Germany.

Drew has served as the Executive Director of the international chamber orchestra of America. Drew is also a co-founder of Pro Arts Management and Consulting LLC and serves as the Musical Director to the Metropolitan Players, an award-winning New York City-based wedding entertainment collective.

In his applied studio, Drew focuses on using technology to incite and support self-directed learning, both in digital music-based students as well as in traditional instrumental students.

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Fun Fact: The nickname "the Doc" was given to Drew while on tour in 2013 for always having a remedy to issues that would arise both musically and extra-musically. The origin of this nickname has little to do with Drew's academic career as Drew earned his doctorate in 2019.