Andrew Buikema

Andrew has 25 years of experience in design and instruction in marching band programming and 14 years teacher as a Director of Bands in Michigan (Grant, MI). His marching bands were incredibly successful at local, state, and national competitions and were regular participants in BOA Regional and Grand National competitions. His bands and jazz bands were also regular participants in MSBOA festivals and clinics. 

 

His love for the marching arts began with experiencing the pageantry of drum corps in the early ’90s by watching DCI finals and especially Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, an organization that he would later join and perform in 2000. Buikema studied Music Education at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) and has a Master of Education from Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). He was also a Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia member and the “Sound of Western” at WMU. 

 

Buikema’s adjudication experience includes Bands of America (Music For All), MCBA (Michigan Competing Band Association), KMEA (Kentucky Music Education Association), CSJA (Central States Judges Association), Scholastic Bands (MI), and US Bands. Mr. Buikema is an active drill writer, clinician, and adjudicator. 

 

Buikema lives in Rockford, Michigan with his wife and amazing English Bulldog, Rubble, where he works as an Assistant Principal at Sparta Middle School.