band director
​Andrea Vella was born and raised in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. She attended Southeast High School, and was in band under the direction of Owen Bradley, Robert Bush, and Pamlea Chaffin. While in Sarasota, Ms. Vella studied horn with Larry Solowey and Lisa Aplikowski-Lind. During high school, she spent her summers at the internationally acclaimed Interlochen Arts Camp, in Interlochen, Michigan, studying under Douglas Campbell.
She then attended Florida State University, earning her Bachelor of Music in French Horn Performance with a minor in Italian. Ms. Vella studied horn with Michelle Stebleton, David Cripps, and Kevin Reid, and played in ensembles under the direction of Dr. Patrick Dunnigan, Dr. David Plack, Dr. Richard Clary, and Dr. Alexander Jimenez.
During her time at FSU, she was in the ‘world renown’ Marching Chiefs - the largest college marching band in the world. She also was a member of the service oriented fraternity; Kappa Kappa Psi - National Honorary Band Fraternity.
Ms. Vella then earned her Master of Arts in French Horn Performance at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana, in beautiful Lugano, Switzerland, where she studied horn under David Johnson, Sandro Ceccarelli, and Andreas Kamber.
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She has had the opportunity to perform with many orchestras and ensembles throughout the US, Switzerland, Italy, and the UK, including: the Pocket Opera Company in Zurich, CH, the Huttweiler Kammerorchester in St. Moritz, CH, the Orchestra Arcadia, in Ticino, CH, the Brass Band of Central Florida, in Orlando, FL, the Anna Maria Island Concert Choir and Orchestra, the South Shore Symphony Orchestra in Ruskin, FL, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, in Albany, GA, and the Alpharetta Symphony Orchestra in Alpharetta, GA. She has also taught horn at the State College of Florida and played with the Pops Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Robyn Bell and The Venice Symphony under the direction of Troy Quinn.
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Ms. Vella has been the Band Director at Southeast High School since 2010. While at Southeast, students and ensembles under her direction have received many accolades, including numerous Superiors at MPAs, been recipients of the music category of the Golden Herald Awards, and have been chosen for many honor bands, scholarships, and won competitions, etc. During her time at Southeast, she has taken students on trips to Europe twice in 2019, visiting France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, and attending a global leadership summit in Switzerland, to New York City in 2015 and 2018, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, the University of South Florida's HOT Day, Florida State University's Band Day, and performed for the Royal Caribbean 'Stars at Sea' cruise to the Bahamas. This year, the band is planning to perform in the New Orleans Sugar Bowl parade. In 2018, Ms. Vella had the honor of being nominated as a Florida Bandmasters Association "Emerging Leader" and was chosen as the site representative for Southeast High School for the Excellence in Education Awards (Teacher of the Year) in 2017-2018 and 2021-2022.
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Ms. Vella has been happily married since June 2022 to her husband, Philip Hoffman, who is a PGA pro at The Founders Golf Club and is also the girls golf team coach at Southeast High School. They have two dogs, a schnoodle named Anja and a chihuahua named Pinky.
She is extremely honored and excited to be back home at Southeast! And as always...
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>>>---GO-NOLES!--->
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