Hailed for his “delicate nuance and sensitivity” and “remarkable skill and musicianship,” Andrew DeBoer is the Department Head of Music and Theatre and Associate Professor of Music, Clarinet at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. He serves as principal clarinetist with the Fort Smith Symphony and regularly plays with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. He has also played with such orchestras as the Arizona Opera and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. DeBoer has also soloed with a variety of ensembles, including the Fort Smith Symphony, Hastings Symphony, UAFS Wind Ensemble, and 43rd Army Band.
DeBoer has recorded for many albums and can be heard on the Grammy nominated album, Impossible Dream (2024). Additionally, he played on Echoes of Grace: Choral Music of Patti Drennan (2024), which received a World Entertainment Award for “Best Choral Music,” and on the Fort Smith Symphony’s album of Louis Wayne Ballard works (2023) which received a World Entertainment Award for “Best Classical Performance.” DeBoer has also recorded for the critically acclaimed album of Florence Price works (2019) by the Fort Smith Symphony available on Naxos. Additionally, DeBoer has recorded two albums as part of the Wind and Wood Duo: Reimagined Possibilities and Pools of Light (scheduled for release April 2025), and his own solo albums, CrossOver (2015) and Violet Convergence (2013).
While keeping a full schedule of orchestral performances and recording, DeBoer also enjoys performing at various festivals and conferences throughout the United States and Europe as a soloist and with the Wind and Wood Duo. He also enjoys any opportunity for collaborating in chamber music, most recently in several performance in the Close Up! series in Little Rock, AR.
Alongside his performance career, DeBoer is passionate about teaching. He has been an invited clinician and guest artist in Arkansas and Oklahoma, teaching and performing at various clinics and festivals. Some of his students have been accepted at such prestigious schools as the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, Denver University, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, and The Ohio State University.
DeBoer completed both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at Arizona State University with internationally renowned artist and teacher, Robert Spring, and earned a Bachelor of Music with Debra McKim Rhodes at Hastings College. Additional studies include those with Pascual Martinez-Forteza (New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Susan Warner (Chicago Lyric Opera), and Bill King (Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra), among others.