Music by composers Andrew Weathers, Maurizio Guerandi, François Rossé, Roshanne Etezady, Lee Hyla, and Mark Engebretson.

Steve Stusek, saxophone, is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where he is a member of the Eastwind Quintette d’Anches and the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet. Originally from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, he received his Bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance from Indiana University. Before beginning a Master’s degree in saxophone and chamber music at Arizona State University, Steve spent a year in Paris studying at the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire Nationale Superior de Musique de Paris) and the Conservatoire de le Région de Paris, where he was awarded the Prix d’Or à l’Unanimité in Saxophone Performance. After living in the Netherlands for almost eight years he returned to Indiana University and was awarded a DMA in Saxophone in 2001. He has served on the faculties of Ball State University, Middlebury College, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He has been on the UNCG faculty since 1999. As a soloist, Steve has appeared with the Eastern Music Festival and more recently with the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble as part of the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial conference. He has been the principle saxophonist for the Eastern Music Festival and the Greensboro Symphony for the past ten years. In 2000, he won the prestigious Dutch Chamber Music Competition as part of the saxophone-accordion duo 2Track with accordion virtuoso Otine van Erp. Together they have performed throughout the Netherlands, the US and on Dutch radio. Steve teamed up with pianist Inara Zandmane and saxophonist Susan Fancher to produce the critically acclaimed recording Louder than Words – music for two saxophones and piano. Steve’s teachers have included Eugene Rousseau, Joseph Wytko, David Baker, Larry Teal, Daniel Deffayet, Jean-Yves Formeau, and Leroy Wolter. Steve is the Past-President of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

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.” 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. He has appeared in venues like Carnegie Hall’s ‘Weill Recital Hall’ and Chicago’s ‘Symphony Center,’ and has performed across Switzerland and Germany as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. 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 talented middle and high school students from around the Southeast United States and Costa Rica.

Andy is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and he 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.