Andrew Pelletier

Internationally active horn soloist, Grammy Award winning chamber musician, and masterclass clinician, Andrew Pelletier enjoys an extremely busy and varied life as a performer, educator and mentor.  Consistently praised for his interpretations and artistry, John Henken of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “gleaming, handsome playing. Pelletier is a soloist who seems capable of anything on his instrument.” Fanfare Magazine called him “Phenomenal…undeniably in tune with what he plays” and his recording of music of Samuel Adler as "a stunning virtuoso display", and the American Record Guide has praised his “full sound and playing with authority and imagination.” The First Prize winner of the 1997 and 2001 American Horn Competition (America’s only internationally recognized competition for the horn), he has appeared as a Featured Artist at the International Horn Society Annual Symposia of 2009 and 2014, and has appeared as a solo artist at the Symposia of 1997, 2003, 2005, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024. He is in regular demand for artistic residencies and clinics at universities and music schools, and these solo tours have taken him to 30 US states, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, England, Mexico and Thailand.

Dedicated to new music and the collaboration between performer and composer, he has commissioned and premiered over 60 new works for the horn as a solo voice, by such noted composers as Samuel Adler, Meredith Brammeier, Carson Cooman, David Crumb, Fernando Deddos, Christopher Dietz, Randall Faust, David Gillingham, Joseph Landers, Katherine Likhuta, Anne McGinty, Roger Reynolds, Martin Rokeach, Corey Ryan, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Kerry Turner.

As a chamber musician, he performs with Southwest Chamber Music in California (with whom he won the 2005 Grammy award for Best Classical Recording, Small Ensemble) and the Tower Brass Quintet in Toledo, OH.   He has performed with the Empire Brass Quintet, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, the Motor City Brass Quintet, Portland (Maine) Brass Quintet, Maine Brass Quintet, the Maine Chamber Players, and with Chamber Music at the Scarab Club, Detroit. A seasoned orchestral performer, he was the Principal horn of the Detroit Opera Orchestra for 16 seasons, Principal horn for the Ann Arbor Symphony for 12 seasons, Principal horn of the Santa Barbara Symphony for four seasons, was a regular member (Assistant Principal/Utility) of the Portland (Maine) Symphony for over five seasons, and was a founding member of Opera Maine, playing for its first three seasons.  He has performed as guest principal horn for the Los Angeles Philharmonic (under Music Director Gustavo Dudamel), the Detroit Symphony, the Toledo Symphony and Toledo Opera, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, and the Windsor (Canada) Symphony. Other Principal horn positions he has held are the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre, Columbus Bach Ensemble, Long Beach Camerata, Maine Chamber Ensemble, and Portland (Maine) Ballet.  He spent almost a decade as an active free-lance performer in Los Angeles and can be heard on various film soundtracks as Battle: Los Angeles, Your Highness, Lethal Weapon 4, The X-Men, Frequency and TV movies for Lifetime TV and the SiFi Channel.  

A Lifetime member of the International Horn Society and the British Horn Society, he is dedicated to service to the horn community, and has served the International Horn Society in a variety of ways over the years: as President (2018-2021), host/coordinator of the 53rd Annual International Horn Society Symposium (2021), Advisory Council member, Coordinator of Scholarships and Competitions, member of the Digital E-Newsletter committee, and Ohio Regional Coordinator.  For all his service to the International Horn Society, he was awarded the Society's Service Medal of Honor in 2022, its highest recognition for volunteer service.  His pedagogical articles have been published by the International Horn Society, the Norwegian Horn Society, the New England Horn Society, the Texas Bandmaster’s Association, and the New York Brass Conference. He holds a B.M. degree, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Southern Maine, and an M.M. and the D.M.A (voted Outstanding Graduate of the Class for both degrees) from the University of Southern California. His primary mentor was James Decker, with additional studies with John Boden, David Jolley, trumpeter Roy Poper, Michael Thompson and Gail Williams. He has recorded for MSR Classics, Cambria Master Classics, Centaur Records, ToneQuest Recordings, Koch International, and Delos labels.

Since 2004, Pelletier is extremely proud to serve as the Professor of Horn of the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University, in Bowling Green, Ohio, where he also serves as the Chair of the Department of Music Performance Studies.  He was named a Professor of Creative Arts Excellence at BGSU in 2020.  He has previously taught at the Portland (Maine) Conservatory of Music, Moorpark College, Ventura Community College, and the University of Southern California.  Andrew Pelletier plays exclusively on horns by Paxman of London, England, and mouthpieces by PHC London.