A native of Atlanta, Georgia, saxophonist and educator Adam Hutcheson has been performing and teaching professionally in New York City since 2013. He is a graduate of the acclaimed University of North Texas jazz studies program, where he played lead alto in the six-time Grammy nominated One O’Clock Lab Band.
While at UNT, he taught jazz saxophone lessons as a graduate teaching fellow, was awarded multiple Downbeat Magazine student awards, and was selected as a finalist in the 2010 and 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance jazz saxophone competitions. He holds the honor of being the last lead alto player to play in professor Jim Riggs’ Two O’Clock Lab Band before his retirement in 2008, where his playing can be heard on the album Denton Texas Jazz Giant, and can also be heard on other UNT releases including Flamenco JazzProject (UNT Zebras), Too Two (Two O'Clock Lab Band), Lab 2010, and Lab 2011 (One O'Clock Lab Band).
As a member of the One O’clock Lab Band, Adam performed in the Guinness Jazz Festival (Cork, Ireland), Bulls Head Jazz Club (London, UK), Royal College of Music (London, UK), Jazz Education Network Conference (New Orleans, LA), Folsom Jazz Festival (Folsom, CA), Catalina Jazz Club (Hollywood, CA), and performed a three night stint alongside the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Jones Hall (Houston, TX). The band was honored to back a number of guest artists including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Tim Ries, and Wayne Bergeron. Since graduating, Hutcheson has performed professionally as a sideman throughout the world and has played internationally at jazz clubs in Amsterdam, Seoul, and Tokyo. He has been privileged to perform alongside numerous musicians in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, including his mentor and saxophonist Brad Leali (Count Basie Orchestra) and legendary pianist/educator Dan Haerle. As an educator, Adam has served on the faculty of the University of North Texas summer jazz camps, maintained a private studio in Dallas/Ft. Worth and now in New York City, taught masterclasses regularly in Georgia and Texas schools, and has been an annual featured clinician/performer since 2017 in both the Plano Jazz Invitational and P-Town Jazz Festival directed/hosted by Mark De Hertogh and Plano Senior High School (Plano, TX).
Since arriving in New York, Adam has been privileged to share the bandstand with some of the jazz scenes most in demand musicians including George Colligan, Mike Clark, Victor Lewis, Duane Eubanks, Jay Leonhart, Mark Ferber, and Ed Howard. Adam is a regular performer in the NYC jazz club scene as a sideman and leader and most notably performs regularly at Jazz at the Kitano, dubbed “One of the best jazz clubs in NYC” by the NYC Jazz Record. He can be heard on numerous albums as a sideman, and his debut album entitled Dreaming is Free (2017) features Addison Frei, Perrin Grace, and Matt Young (AMP Trio). Adam also co-leads a double alto project called AH2 alongside Los Angeles based saxophonist Alex Hahn and their first album Vol. 1 (2020) features George Colligan, James Robbins, Ross Pederson, and Dustin Mollick. The group recently won first place in the jazz category of the 2020 Unsigned Only International Music Competition for Adam’s original composition “Souperbass.”