About
Anirudd "Andy" Sharma is a performer, educator, and conductor based in Portland, Oregon. Andy maintains a private studio teaching clarinet, saxophone, and beginning-interm. piano, and coaches sectionals around Portland, atWest Sylvan MS, Westview, Southridge, Beaverton, and Sherwood high schools. He adjudicated for the District XIII Solo/Ensemble Festival and will be teaching at Sherwood Youth Band Camp (for middle school students) this summer.
He has performed for over 15 years, and has performed with the Vancouver Symphony (WA), Newport Symphony, Oregon Mahler Festival, Portland Choir & Orchestra, Oregon Symphonic Band, Portland Wind Symphony, PDX Classical Revolution, and frequently collaborates in chamber groups and with various composers, appearing at venues throughout the northwest. He has performed throughout the United States as well as Canada, U.K., France, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, and in venues such as the Nashville Symphony Hall, Ivy Tech Waldron Arts Center, Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Newmark Theater, Clinton Street Theater, TEDx Portland, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, and was featured on Portland's AllClassical FM Radio Station.
Andy has collaborated with musicians of the Oregon Symphony, Boston Symphony, and 3 Leg Torso, and has worked with distinguished conductors such as Carlos Kalmar, Paul Nadler, Arthur Fagen, Cliff Colnot, Thomas Wilkins, Daniel Boico, Stuart Chafetz, Stephen Pratt, and David Hattner. He has performed with orchestras such as the Indiana University Philharmonic, University and Summer Festival Orchestras, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Orchestra, New Voices Opera Orchestra, PSU Symphony Orchestra, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, and with wind bands such as the IU Wind Ensemble, PSU Wind Symphony, and the Portland Wind Symphony. He recorded for the NAXOS label with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra in David Diamond’s Symphony No. 6, and produced historical recordings of music by the Old Aurora Colony Pioneer Band with the PSU Wind Symphony.
Andy has performed as a concerto soloist with the Beaverton Symphony, Oregon Sinfonietta, and Indiana University Orchestra. His 2016 recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the IU Orchestra garnered more than 2,300 views.
He has appeared at Cascadia Composers (a Chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA), Western International Band Clinic, Oregon Music Educator's Association Conference, and the College Band Director's National Conference in Nashville, TN. He has performed many works by composers at PSU and IU for concerts, recitals, projects, and recordings, and performed in collaboration between the IU Composition Department and the School of Contemporary Dance.
Andy holds a Master of Music Degree in Clarinet Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music Degree in Clarinet Performance from Portland State University. His primary teachers were James Campbell and Barbara Heilmair, and received coaching from Howard Klug and Eli Eban. He has also worked with Andrew Marriner, Richard Morales, Richie Hawley, Boris Allakhverdyan, Dave Howard, and Joze Kotar, among others.