Andrew Janss is a creator and entrepreneur at the intersection of music, technology, and social impact. With a career spanning world-class performance, nonprofit leadership, and , he is dedicated to expanding the reach of the arts through strategic, scalable solutions to intractable problems.
As Founder of the Amplify Foundation, Andrew developed a novel on-demand musician/patient matching portal (“SerenAid”) for the scheduling of live virtual bedside concerts in hospitals - an initiative currently being studied as part of a Fulbright-funded Arts-in-Health research initiative under Dr. Augustine Kang (Brown University) at Nottingham Trauma Centre. Amplify’s programs build on his work as Executive Director of Project: Music Heals Us, where he launched the Vital Sounds Initiative - a Music Medicine program that produced over 15,000 one-on-one, live virtual bedside concerts for isolated hospital patients in 46 healthcare facilities - as well as developing and producing the organization’s Music for the Future program, a college-accredited music composition course for incarcerated individuals, in partnership with the Bard Prison Initiative. In recognition for the impact of this work, Andrew was nominated for a 2020-21 Emerson Collective Fellowship by Yo-Yo Ma.
Beyond philanthropy, Andrew is reshaping the string instrument bow industry with Arcotype, an innovative start-up harnessing advanced materials and precision manufacturing to launch the world’s first accessible, self-rehairable bow. The company aims to improve music education by empowering teachers to affordably and easily maintain their students’ instruments, while tackling the egregious and growing problem of deforestation caused by the recent flood of cheap, single-use wood bows that must be thrown away and wholly replaced every year.
The New York Times has hailed Janss’ cello playing for its "glowing tone", "insightful musicianship", and "sumptuous elegance”. A founding cellist of the Escher Quartet and former guest principal with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Andrew has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The Sydney Opera House, collaborating with Classical icons from Itzhak Perlman and Leon Fleisher to pop legends such as Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and Lana del Rey. For many years he toured as an Arts Ambassador of the US Department of State with the groundbreaking cello rock band Break of Reality.
