Performances by clarinetist Andy Hudson have been hailed as “a treat for the listener” and praised for “an uncommon singularity of purpose, technical virtuosity, youthful vigor and a mature sensitivity.” An active performer both nationally and internationally, he has received performance invitations from 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, and Ostend, Belgium. In 2017, Andy performed across Switzerland and Germany as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra under the baton of Matthias Pintscher, and he 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 Columbus State University and Northwestern University Concerto Competitions. Andy is a frequent soloist, recently performing the concerti of Weber, Gandolfi, Daugherty, and Mozart among others. Several of Andy’s performances have been broadcast on WFMT Chicago, including his 2011 performance of Scott McAllister’s “Black Dog” as soloist with the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

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 recently 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 made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 as a member of the trio F-PLUS, and he is clarinetist with dynamic mixed-chamber sextet Latitude 49. He has also appeared with a.pe.ri.od.ic and the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, and performs regularly with The Zafa Collective, earspace, and 10th & Broadway.

In 2018, Andy joins the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as Lecturer of Clarinet. Additionally, each summer he joins the Artist-Faculty of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival in Huntsville, AL, and 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 cycling, running, reading, playing guitar, eating local food, watching baseball, and acquiring obscure instruments.

The UNCG Wind Ensemble is a highly select concert band of fifty performers majoring in music at the UNCG School of Music. Performers in the current Wind Ensemble are drawn from sixteen states, Slovenia, and Hong Kong. The ensemble has enjoyed a distinguished record of performance throughout its history. In January 1992, the UNCG Wind Ensemble performed “A Tribute to John Philip Sousa” to a capacity crowd of 2,700 at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Twice, the Wind Ensemble earned critical acclaim from The Washington Post following concerts in the nation’s capital. The Wind Ensemble has performed throughout the eastern United States in recent years including the first-ever performance, in 1987, by a North Carolina collegiate ensemble in Lincoln Center, New York City. The Wind Ensemble performed that same year in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. The Wind Ensemble has recorded nineteen commercially-available albums which have received widespread praise.

In 1985, the Wind Ensemble performed a series of concerts with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-conductor Karel Husa. In 1988, the UNCG Wind Ensemble performed in New Orleans, Louisiana by invitation of the College Band Directors National Association for the Southern Division convention. On a number of occasions, the Wind Ensemble has commissioned and premiered works from leading band composers. In November of 1990, the Wind Ensemble performed for the Southern Division of MENC convention. In February 1994, the UNCG Wind Ensemble performed for a convention of the CBDNA and NBA in Williamsburg, Virginia. In March 1999, the Wind Ensemble performed for the national convention of the American Bandmasters Association in Melbourne, Florida. In February 2000, the Wind Ensemble performed for the CBDNA Southern Division Convention hosted at UNCG. In 2006, the Wind Ensemble performed in The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, shared a concert with the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Arlington, Virginia, and collaborated with Karel Husa, David Dzubay, and Carter Pann in the performaces of their music, including two commissions. In 2009, the Wind Ensemble performed at the CBDNA National Convention at the University of Texas at Austin and performed additional concerts in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana,s and Texas as a part of a week-long tour. The Wind Ensemble performed at the 2011 National Convention of the American Bandmasters Association and the 2013 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association hosted in Greensboro. Most recently, the UNCG took a twelve day concert tour through the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy, the highlight of which was a concert in Prague’s famed Dvořák Hall.