Andy Hudson, Musician-in-Residence

November 3rd – 6th

Drop-in visit: Monday, November 2nd – Friday, November 6th

The community is encouraged to visit the space during open hours to observe the artist’s creative process. RSVP is not required. 

(11:00am – 5:00pm)

Artist Talk & Demo: Wednesday, November 4th

(in person, limited capacity*)

RSVP Here (7:30pm)

Three Performances: Friday, November 6th

(in person, limited capacity*)

RSVP Here (6:00pm)

RSVP Here (7:00pm)

RSVP Here (8:00pm)

*Due to Covid-19 and our limited in person capacity, all in-person events have a limited capacity and an RSVP is required. For more information about our Covid-19 policies to keep the community safe please visit: greensboroprojectspace.com/visit.

“Each new day is a new burden, a new journey. Each day, the same burden, the same journey.“

‘Sisyphus’ pushes the burden up the hill. Over and over, he pours the fullness of his strength into the task, emptying himself to move the rock another inch. Eventually, as before, he crumbles under its weight and finds himself tumbling down again, like humpty dumpty or the evening rain. Each new day is a new burden, a new journey. Each day, the same burden, the same journey. Another attempt to crest the hill.

Life during the pandemic has brought with it the rolling drive of monotony. Days, weeks, even months blur together as we struggle to achieve even the most menial tasks. Like Sisyphus, we feel the weight of each moment as they stack, one on another, until the feather-light days have become a heavy and crushing burden. We become the architecture: bricks upon bricks, cascading city blocks and fire escapes, individual elements that become heavy as they are stacked atop each other, seemingly immovable.

‘Sisyphus’ is a performance that explores these concepts of stacking and repetition, of pushing the burden up the hill again, as we observe them externally and internally. The music layers upon itself like every new/old day, and yet through this repetition we find color, strength, even whimsy. Whether in literal or metaphysical ways, we find that the present burden affords creative possibilities that once seemed impossible: through the heaviness and repetition of life, we find new meaning and expression.

Featuring music by Cassie Wieland, Eric P. Mandat, and Steve Reich, ‘Sisyphus’ program explores musical soundscapes that recur, relapse, and evolve, and concludes with the world premiere of a new work by Andy Hudson.

Andy Hudson

Hailed as a “fearless” performer, clarinetist Andy Hudson 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 Canada and the US, and gatherings of the International Clarinet Association across the US and in Europe. Andy won top honors at the 2008 MTNA National Senior Woodwind Competition and has received other prizes in numerous competitions. He was appointed Bass Clarinet/III Clarinetist of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in 2020, and 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 dozens of new works and has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their MusicNOW series, at the New Music Gathering, and with Ensemble Dal Niente and The Grossman Ensemble (with whom he is featured on the 2020 release FOUNTAIN OF TIME). Andy is clarinetist with the mixed sextet Latitude 49, which recently released WAX AND WIRE on New Amsterdam Records.

 Andy is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at UNC Greensboro and the North Carolina State Chair for the ICA. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and Columbus State University, and 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. Let’s connect online: www.theandyhudson.com

For more information, please visit: https://www.greensboroprojectspace.com/blog-post/sisyphus