Performances by Andy Hudson have been hailed as “a treat for the listener,” and have been praised for “an uncommon singularity of purpose, technical virtuosity, youthful vigor and a mature sensitivity.”

Currently on faculty at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, he has performed widely across the United States and Europe, including recent engagements at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the International Clarinet Association ‘ClarinetFest’ in Belgium, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their MusicNOW series, in Boston at the New Music Gathering, and across Switzerland and Germany as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra.

Andy has performed at the World Congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music, the New Music Gathering, the College Music Society Conference in Vancouver, and gatherings of the International Clarinet Association’s ‘ClarinetFest’ in Los Angeles, Orlando, Knoxville, and Ostend, Belgium.

Andy has won top honors at the MTNA National Senior Woodwind Competition, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival Concerto Competition, the MTNA Southern Chamber Music Competition, and both the Northwestern University and Columbus State University Concerto Competitions, and received other prizes in the National Collegiate Solo Competition and the Vandoren Emerging Artists Competition. A frequent soloist, Andy has recently performed the concerti of Weber, Daugherty, Mozart, and Zare among others. Several of Andy’s performances have been broadcast on WFMT Chicago.

A noted interpreter of contemporary music, Andy has premiered and commissioned dozens of works to date and has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their MusicNOW series, at the Bang on a Can Summer Marathon, and at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Eastman School of Music, and Constellation. He gave the Midwest Premiere of Michael Hersch’s chamber opera “On The Threshold of Winter” with Ensemble Dal Niente and soprano Ah Young Hong, of which the Chicago Tribune said, “The eight Dal Niente musicians threw themselves into this challenging music with a razor-sharp bite and precision that was jaw-dropping.” Andy is clarinetist and bass clarinetist with Latitude 49, a sextet that blends the finesse of a classical ensemble with the drive and precision of a rock band, and which recently held residencies at Princeton University and Baylor University. He has also appeared with a.pe.ri.od.ic and the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, and is a core member of F-PLUS, The Zafa Collective, earspace, and 10th & Broadway. Andy has recently performed as guest principal clarinet of the North Carolina Opera and the Winston-Salem Symphony, and he has been principal clarinet of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival Orchestra since 2010, where each summer he joins the Artist-Faculty to work with advanced middle and high school students from around the Southeast United States and Costa Rica. In 2020, he joins the faculty of the Saarburger International Music Festival and School in Saarburg, Germany.

Andy was appointed the North Carolina State Chair for the International Clarinet Association in 2019. He previously held teaching positions at Northwestern University and Lake Forest College. Andy earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet Performance with a Cognate Certification in Music Theory from Northwestern University, where he also earned his Master of Music degree. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. His primary teachers have included Steve Cohen, J. Lawrie Bloom, and Lisa Oberlander. When he’s not practicing, Andy enjoys running, reading, playing guitar, eating local food, watching baseball, and acquiring obscure instruments.