Founder & Executive Director · Red Deer, Alberta

Andrew Ludtke

Born in Red Deer. Andrew is a Humber College graduate with over 20 years in the music industry. He plays the Berglund NuEVI, an electronic wind instrument, and works as a soloist, accompanist, bandleader, producer and music educator.

He has studied and performed with Pat LaBarbera, Kirk MacDonald, Al Kay, Phil Nimmons, Don Thompson and Rob McConnell, and with visiting artists including Chris Potter, Kurt Elling, Randy Brecker, Peter Appleyard, Mike Stern and Terence Blanchard.

In Alberta he has played with Blue Moon Marquee, Twisted Lobby, Flatiron Big Band, The Vintage, the SwingTime AllStars, the RDC Big Band and Symphonic Winds, and the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra.

He leads his own jazz quartet, which has played sold-out shows at The Velvet Olive and at the Red Deer Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary. He founded the Red Deer Community for Jazz Music in 2022, and filmed and produced a TV series for TELUS STORYHIVE about live jazz in Red Deer.

Andrew Ludtke, founder of the Red Deer Community for Jazz Music, playing the Berglund NuEVI

“In 2021 a neck injury ended my career as a trombonist. I founded the Red Deer Community for Jazz Music the following year — before I knew whether I would perform again.” — Andrew Ludtke

He returned to the stage on the NuEVI in November 2024, in the first feature concert ever performed on the instrument. The RDCJM was founded “so that live jazz in this city would not depend on any one player being able to hold up a horn.”

More from Andrew

Andrew’s full story, music and performance dates are on his own site, and his debut single Black Orpheus is on YouTube and Spotify.

Andrew on NuEVI with Morgan McKee on piano and John Gray on bass, at Sweethearts Serenade in Red Deer, February 2025.

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