Done Differently: Annie Jeng and Andy Hudson

September 24th, 7pm via Zoom
https://uncg.zoom.us/j/93820617694

A Zoom Salon Exploring Greensboro’s Creative Praxis during the 2020 Quarantine

Greensboro has long been known for its creatives – Musicians, Filmmakers, Poets, Sculptors, Organic Farmers, etc. Greensboro Project Space’s Done Different is a Zoom Salon led by local Greensboro creatives that explores not just how the events of the 2020 Quarantine affected their work, but how it has transformed the habits and strategies by which they do their work. The salon approaches this through the concept of praxis, the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied or realized. Praxis is often an activity oriented toward changing oneself and the world in which we live.

Hosted by Greg Grieve

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Annie Jeng
Annie Jeng enjoys a diverse career as an internationally active performer, educator, and arts entrepreneur. She has performed widely in such settings as Italy, Spain, China, the Kennedy Center, and given University guest artist recitals at University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Interlochen Arts Academy, University of South Florida, and University of Windsor. Performances have included Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and Messiaen’s ​Oiseaux exotiques​ with the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble. As a passionate champion of contemporary music, she has collaborated with ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Roomful of Teeth. A Presser scholar, Annie has presented at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conferences at the national and collegiate level, and had previous teaching positions at Schoolcraft College Piano Academy and The Faber Institute. She also serves as the Artist Fellow for the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy.

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. Previous projects include curating concert series at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital and the Ann Arbor Distilling Company in Ann Arbor. She also led music workshops through the Prison Creative Arts Project at University of Michigan. 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 t​hat will feature newly commissioned works by female composers that introduce unconventional piano techniques to intermediate pianists.

She is the founder and member of the piano and percussion duo, Back Pocket Duo, with Colin McCall. Their recent tour titled ​The Empathy Project​ was an interactive performance that explored the connections between art and empathy with the hope of every audience member finding a stronger sense of empathetic connection with others in their individual worlds. Annie is also a member of Four Corners Ensemble and serves as their Educational Programming Coordinator. 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.

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. Her teachers include Logan Skelton, John Ellis, José Ramón Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Faye Bonner.

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Andy Hudson
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, and the Luminarts Foundation Fellowship 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, 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 Grossman Ensemble, and the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra. 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 is a founding member of the trio F-PLUS, which has established a repertoire for the clarinet/violin/percussion instrumentation. Andy is clarinetist with the mixed sextet Latitude 49, which recently released its sophomore album WAX AND WIRE on New Amsterdam Records. Latitude 49 has held residencies 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 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 Ambassador for Rovner Products, and performs exclusively on Rovner ligatures.

When he’s not practicing, Andy enjoys running, reading, playing guitar, eating local food, watching baseball, and collecting obscure instruments.

https://www.greensboroprojectspace.com/projects/done-different-annie-jeng-and-andy-hudson