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.” He has appeared in Carnegie Hall’s ‘Weill Recital Hall,’ at Chicago’s ‘Symphony Center,’ and at the World Congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music, College Music Society conferences in both Canada and the US, and gatherings of the International Clarinet Association in Los Angeles, Orlando, Knoxville, and Ostend, Belgium. Andy won top honors at the 2008 MTNA National Senior Woodwind Competition and has received other prizes in the National Collegiate Solo Competition, the Vandoren Emerging Artists Competition, the Luminarts Foundation Fellowship Competition, the American Prize, and the Ariel Artists ‘Impact Performance’ Competition. Andy has recently performed as guest principal clarinet of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Opera, and he was appointed Bass Clarinet/III Clarinetist of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in 2020. Other festival appearances include the Lucerne, Bang on a Can, Hot Air, Sewanee, Hot Springs, and Great Lakes Chamber Music festivals. 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 New Music Gathering, and with Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition’s Grossman Ensemble (with whom he is featured on the 2020 release FOUNTAIN OF TIME). In 2018, he was clarinetist for the workshop performance of Augusta Read Thomas’s opera “Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun,” sponsored by the Santa Fe Opera. Andy also performs with the Zafa Collective and earspace, and was a founding member of the trio F-PLUS Andy is Clarinetist and Co-Artistic Director with the mixed sextet Latitude 49. Latitude 49 has held numerous residencies, including recently at Princeton University and Baylor University, and has been the recipient of grants from the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, and the Aaron Copland Fund. Andy can be heard on their albums The Bagatelles Project and Wax and Wire (New Amsterdam), of which TEMPO said, “The group handles lots of different styles with precision, and performances throughout the CD are sharp, clear and full of energy. The album offers some great works, and each of them is its own musical sculpture – fully formed, accomplished, well performed.” His solo debut, “halfway home” will release in the Winter of 2021 on Potenza Music. Andy’s first book, “Elements of Contemporary Clarinet Technique” was co-authored with Roger Zare and released in August of 2021 on Conway Publications. In addition to contributing a chapter for the forthcoming “Clarinet Studio Companion” (Conway, 2021), his work has also been published in The Clarinet Journal, The Piano Magazine, and The College Music Symposium. Andy is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and each summer joins the Artist-Faculty of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival. Previously, he held teaching positions at Northwestern University and Lake Forest College, and he has been the North Carolina State Chair for the International Clarinet Association since 2019. Andy earned his DMA 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. Andy is an Artist-Clinician for Buffet Crampon and an Ambassador for Rovner Products. He performs exclusively on Buffet clarinets and Rovner ligatures. When he’s not practicing, Andy enjoys running, reading, playing guitar, eating local food, watching baseball, and collecting obscure instruments. Let’s connect on Twitter and Instagram: @TheAndyHudson

---

Annie Jeng is a pianist, educator, and collaborator. She is committed to listening, learning, and becoming a better member of society with the hopes of paving roads for justice, collaboration, and kindness in communities. She has performed widely in such settings as the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy, the Gijoìn International Piano Festival in Spain, the Kennedy Center, Interlochen Arts Academy, and China. (However, she sometimes prefers to perform in intimate spaces such as living rooms, personal Zoom calls, and breweries.) Recent performances have included Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with UNCG’s University Symphony Orchestra, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Messiaen’s La ville d’en haut with the University of Michigan Symphony Band, and Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques with the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble. A Presser scholar, Annie has presented at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conferences at collegiate, state, and national levels and College Music Society (CMA) regional conferences. Annie’s essential goal as an artist is to make communities richer and more meaningful through the arts. To this end, Annie strives to make music accessible to audiences of all backgrounds by expanding and rethinking the traditional recital format to include interdisciplinary and interactive elements, all with the aim of encouraging audiences to engage with the artistic experience. Recent projects include, “Music by the Barrel,” which was a concert series at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company in Ann Arbor, “Beyond the Keys: Unlocking Piano Works” which was an interactive concert on the roof of a parking deck performed by her piano pedagogy students, and “Brews-keys” which featured UNCG piano faculty and students at Oden Brewing Company in Greensboro, North Carolina. She also led music workshops that focused on group singing and music as a form of expression through the Prison Creative Arts Project at University of Michigan. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Annie personally picked up and delivered keyboards to UNCG piano students in order to ensure that music within student’s lives would not be stopped. As a strong believer of creating a better and more equitable “normal,” she also founded A Seat at the Piano (ASAP) in the summer of 2020 (aseatatthepiano.com). ASAP is a resource that is dedicated to the promotion of inclusion in the performance and study of solo piano repertoire. Much of Annie’s research is devoted to contemporary music and studying the pedagogical capabilities of contemporary piano techniques. In 2018, Annie received the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship from the University of Michigan to create a pedagogical resource called Circles and Lines that will feature newly commissioned works by female composers that introduce unconventional piano techniques to intermediate pianists. She is also the pianist of Khemia Ensemble (khemiaensemble.com), a contemporary chamber ensemble that is dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music by cultivating inclusive place-making, collaborative mentorships, and authentic storytelling through immersive, multimedia performances. She released the album, “World Map” with Parma Recordings as the former pianist of Four Corner’s Ensemble. Committed to supporting musicians in finding their unique career path, she also worked as a Programming Assistant at University of Michigan’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Career Empowerment & Leadership (EXCEL) Lab. She also serves as a member of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) Career Development and Innovation Committee. Annie received her MM in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan and her BM in Piano Performance with a minor in Public Health from New York University. She received her DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Michigan in 2019. Her teachers include Logan Skelton, Joseì Ramoìn Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Faye Bonner. She is currently the Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.