Andrew was born in Huntly in 1955 to Hungarian immigrant parents, his father a winemaker/grower and his mother a horticulturist. The family moved to Napier in 1957 where Andrew completed his education at Colenso High School and received plenty of musical encouragement from his violin and highschool music teachers, Anna Wilson and Barry Fell. Barry Fell’s prophetic words, “whatever you do when you leave school, don’t give up the violin, Andrew,” lead to Andrew first abandoning his English Literature papers, and then his French language papers in favour of completing a Bachelor of Music (all at Victoria University of Wellington) majoring in Violin Performance, studying with Gavin Saunders.
Work with the then newly founded Wellington Regional Orchestra ensued, followed by a foray into jazz-rock electric violin in Wellington and London. This eventually resulted in an epiphany that saw Andrew studying classical violin again, first at London’s Guildhall College then privately with Paul de Keyser. After arriving back in New Zealand in 1982, Kasza’s studies with Peter Schaeffer, Richard Panting and Tony Cuncannon eventually lead to his successful audition for the NZSO in 1989.
Married with two adult children, Andrew enjoys gardening and cooking, (particularly Hungarian food) both in his Newtown home and in Matarawa in the Wairarapa, where he shares a property with friends and is able to run free in his 1968 Series 2B short wheelbase Land rover.