School of Music
College of Performing and Visual Arts
Andrew is a concert saxophonist, jazz improviser, and pedagogue. Andrew’s recent work includes performing on the audio and video productions of Cake from drummer, composer and band leader Gerald Cleaver’s Positive Elevation records release 22/23. Andrew is currently working on the release of his jazz quartet project with pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Ches Smith, which features all original compositions by Dahlke.
Andrew has been featured as a guest artist and performer across the United States and East Asia, joining such distinguished ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Capitol Saxophone Quartet, and the Gangnam Symphony in Seoul, South Korea. He has also served as a guest artist and frequent performer at the Aspen Music Festival. As an orchestral saxophonist he has played under the baton of conductors including: David Zinman, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, Robert Spano, Bramwell Tovey, Jeffrey Kahane, Larry Rachleff, George Manahan, Steven Reineke, and Marvin Hamlisch. Andrew performed as a soloist and chamber musician in China and South Korea through various occasions including a U. S. State Department tour of China, while concertizing and teaching at major concert halls and music conservatories.
Highlights with the Philadelphia Orchestra include performing the alto saxophone solo in Alban Berg’s violin concerto with violinist Gil Shaham at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and performing with the orchestra in a recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass which was released on Deutsche Grammophon Recordings. As baritone saxophonist in the Capitol Quartet, Andrew had extensive engagements with the Baltimore and Indianapolis Symphonies and participated in the commission and recording of Carter Pann’s Mechanics, Six from the Shop Floor, one of the three finalists for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in music. The Quartet released two CD recordings of new music by American composers: Flex: Five Works for Four Saxophones and Balance. The Quartet also collaborated closely with pops conductors Jack Everly, Steven Reineke and Broadway diva Ann Hampton Callaway.
Andrew’s performances, recordings, and music editions of J. S. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites have received national and international recognition. Of many related projects, his virtual concert Bach, Poetry, and the Greater American Experience was commissioned and live-streamed on 17 May 2022 by the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Andrew is Professor of Music in Saxophone at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado and has been invited to teach and give master classes in the United States and abroad at institutions including the University of Michigan, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, the Beijing Central Conservatory, and the Seoul National University of Arts. His students have been successful in advancing their degrees in prestigious graduate programs, performing as classical and jazz saxophonists, and teaching in K-12 and postsecondary schools.
Andrew also works as a music producer and does audio and video editing and production. He has been involved in designing and manufacturing saxophone mouthpieces in partnership with Brad Behn and has his own saxophone mouthpiece company: www.dahlkemouthpieces.com
Andrew has degrees in music and music education from the University of Michigan and a Doctorate in Music from the University of North Texas. His primary saxophone teachers were Larry Teal, Donald Sinta, Eugene Rousseau, and Jim Riggs. Andrew studied jazz improvisation with Tim Ries, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and clarinet with Andy Crisanti.
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