Andy Firth : Associate Artist
Photo: Andy Firth (photo by Sarah Candlin)
Andy Firth is an Australian virtuoso clarinet and saxophone
artist,
composer, arranger and educator . Andy has played
internationally with some of the finest performers, bands and
orchestras in both classical and jazz music.
In 1987, Andy's arranging mentor, Maestro Tommy Tycho
encouraged Andy to study and develop his own arranging and
composition abilities and even gave Andy numerous lessons
and compositions for him to study.
By 2003, Andy had become an award-winning composer
having won awards for his music for television and film. To
date,
Andy has over 1,000 compositions to his name some of which
are full scale classically oriented or chamber music works.
In
2003, Boosey & Hawkes (London) published Andy's popular
woodwind series "Play Clarinet with Andy Firth" and "Play
Saxophone with Andy Firth", and these have now become part
of the main list syllabus for Australian and other
International
woodwind examinations. Andy's music is now published by
Accessible Music Publishing (andyfirthmusic.com), Boosey &
Hawkes (London), Royal College of Music (London), ABRSM
(UK), Alfred Publishing (US), Trinity College, (London).
In 2000, US mouthpiece maker, Mike Lomax (Lomax Classic)
further honoured Andy with his own series of clarinet
mouthpieces, the "Andy Firth Jazz Series".
Andy Firth has also worked with many of Australia's major
symphony orchestras as a jazz and classical soloist with the
great Australian Maestro, Tommy Tycho, who often featured him
as the soloist in his musical arrangements. In April 2006
Andy
Firth was honoured with an Australian MO AWARD for "Best Jazz
Instrumentalist".
In 2008 Andy was invited to perform under his own name at
Carnegie Hall, New York.
His guest artist for this concert was the US jazz clarinet
legend, Buddy DeFranco.
Andy Firth continues to tour and perform with Australia's
leading
jazz and classical artists and ensembles and he is a regular
guest
performer at National and International clarinet and
saxophone
conferences both in Australia and overseas.
Andy can also be heard playing the jazz clarinet solos on Baz
Luhrmann's epic film, "Australia".
Biography provided by the composer — current to July 2026
