Jeffery Kyle Hutchins

Professor of Saxophone at Virginia Tech Univeristy

United States

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Praised for his “formidable technique” and “enviable uniformity of tone” (The Saxophone Symposium) and described as a “skilled improviser, no doubt about it” (I Care If You Listen), Jeffery Kyle Hutchins is a concert saxophonist, chamber musician, improviser, pedagogue, and performance artist who focuses on the creation and promotion of contemporary music and interdisciplinary media. His work emphasizes close collaboration with composers and artists to create adventurous programming, often incorporating the body, the voice, the instrument, technology, and space. He has performed concerts in Asia, Europe, and North America, and has participated in the creation of more than 100 new works.

His performances have been broadcast on Fresh Ink hosted by Neva Pilgrim on WCNY-FM (New York) and Nova hosted by Bernard Clarke on Raidió Teilifís Éireann lyric fm (Ireland). He performs regularly on festivals, conferences, and series for contemporary, experimental, and electroacoustic music, including Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), the New York City Electronic Music Festival (NYCEMF), the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the New Music Gathering, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), the World Saxophone Congress, the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference (NASA), the US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, the International Workshop for Musical Metacreation (MuMe) at the International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC), the Electroacoustic Barndance (EABD), the New Horizons Music Festival (NHMF), MNmade, the New Ruckus, Old Wood New Sounds, Punk-Ass Classical, and Zeitgeist New Music Cabaret. Hutchins has recorded for numerous record labels including Avid Sound Records, Emeritus Records, GIA Publications, Farpoint Recordings, and Klavier Records, and has won competition prizes and grants from DOWNBEAT, New Music USA, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA), and the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, among others.

Hutchins is a member of the Board of Directors and a frequently featured performer for 113 (One Thirteen), a collective of composers and performers who curate concerts, seminars, and masterclasses throughout the Midwest. He has premiered over twenty works by members of the collective and worked closely with composers Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, and Michael Pisaro, as well as presenting continental premieres of works by Mark Andre, Hans-Joachim Hespos, and Volker Heyn. Hutchins is also a member of the laptop and woodwind improvisation duo Binary Canary with Ted Moore, whose first album click/blow was hailed as a “full on noise-jazz symphony” (Raised by Gypsies) and “well worth the listen” (Signals for Images). In addition, he is an active member of groups AVIDduo, The Broken Consort, The Poem Is Done, Renegade Ensemble, and Strains New Music Ensemble. In addition to being an active saxophonist, Hutchins regularly performs experimental works for voice, including works by Joey Crane, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, and Kurt Schwitters, has performed in theatre settings, including a recent performance of Samuel Becket’s Krapp’s Last Tape in 2015, and has exhibited work and been featured as a performance artist at Gamut Gallery, the Mammal Gallery, the Nash Art Gallery, Northern Spark, and the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture, among others.

As a pedagogue, Hutchins has held residencies and taught masterclasses at universities across the country, including summer programs such as the E. Rousseau Saxophone Workshop at Shell Lake and The Walden School. He has given clinics and presentations at the Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia Music Educators Association Conferences, the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors National Conference, the Association for Technology in Music Instruction and College Music Society Conference. Hutchins is Artist/Teacher of Saxophone at Virginia Tech where, in addition to teaching classical and jazz studio saxophone, he directs the Jazz Lab Band and New Music Ensemble, and teaches courses in Advanced Ear Training and Jazz History.

In 2015, Hutchins received the Doctor of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with renowned saxophonist Eugene Rousseau. There he was a recipient of the prestigious Berneking Fellowship and served as Instructor of Saxophone. He received degrees in Music Education and Saxophone Performance from the University of North Texas, where he studied with Eric Nestler.