Andy Mellor enjoys a lively and varied freelance career as a clarinettist, having played with notable leading orchestras and ensembles across the country including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Guildhall Orchestral Artistry program, and the Hallé Orchestra as part of the RNCM Professional Experience Scheme. He is currently a young artist in association with the Worshipful Company of Musicians and was the winner of the 2021 Clarinet Prize at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

 

An experienced soloist, Andy has given recitals at venues such St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Paul’s Covent Garden and Howden Minster. In November 2018, he performed as a soloist alongside the RNCM Symphony Orchestra at their high-profile tribute concert to Sir John Manduell, which was later recorded and featured on Prima Facie Records. With a strong interest in collaboration and contemporary music, Andy has commissioned and premiered multiple new works for solo clarinet and other combinations, including Matthew Eden’s two movement sonata for clarinet and piano. Andy has performed at the Bridgewater Hall, St. John Smith’s Square, the Glasgow Art Club and many festivals across the UK and Europe alongside a variety of chamber ensembles. Andy also has a keen interest in jazz performance, previously collaborating with Gywlim Simcock, Johannes Berauer and the Hourglass Quintet during their 2018 “Hourglass” tour of Europe. He has also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the EFG London Jazz Festival with the “ImPossibilities”.

 

Andy graduated from the Orchestral Artistry Masters programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Distinction in 2021, where he was a finalist in the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers Prize for Woodwind. Studying with Joy Farrall, Andrew Marriner and Michael Collins, Andy received generous scholarships from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Norman Gee Scholarship Foundation and Help Musicians UK. He previously studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Lynsey Marsh, Nicholas Cox, Chris Swann and Matt Hunt, graduating with First-Class Honours in 2019. Born and raised in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Andy’s initial musical training began at Yorkshire Young Musicians at Leeds Conservatoire, where he was awarded a seat at the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, supported by the Wolfson Foundation.

 

Away from the clarinet, Andy enjoys cooking, taking in the nature of local parks and regular visits to his family’s two pet dogs, Charlie and Teddy. 

Andy plays on Buffet Crampon clarinets, which he was able to purchase with the generous support of the Wolfson Foundation.