Hailing from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Andy Mellor enjoys a lively and varied freelance career as a clarinettist, having played with leading orchestras and ensembles across the country, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé as part of professional orchestral training programmes. He is currently a young artist in association with the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

 

An experienced soloist and chamber musician, Andy has given recitals at many venues and festivals throughout the country, including St. John Smith’s Square, St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Paul’s Covent Garden, Glasgow Arts Club and Howden Minster. In 2022, performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Symphonia Verbum Orchestra at King’s Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, and in 2018, 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 additional interest in jazz and contemporary performance, Andy has appeared at notable festivals including the Montreux and EFG London Jazz Festivals, and performed as a guest with Gwylim Simcock and the Hourglass Quintet in 2018, as part of their “Hourglass” European tour. He has commissioned and premiered multiple new works for solo clarinet and other ensembles, including Matthew Eden’s two movement sonata for clarinet and piano, as well as Phoenix Rousiamanis’ haunting ‘Songs of Descent’.

 

Graduating from the Orchestral Artistry Masters programme with Distinction at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Andy was the winner of the 2021 Guildhall School Clarinet Prize, and was a finalist at the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers Prize for Woodwind. His studies were undertaken with tutorage from Joy Farrall, Andrew Marriner and Michael Collins. Prior to this, he graduated with First Class Honours from the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Lynsey Marsh, Nicholas Cox, Matthew Hunt and Christopher Swann. His studies were supported with scholarships from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Norman Gee Scholarship Foundation and Help Musicians UK, to whom he is thankful for.

 

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