Andy Hernandez is a Hispanic composer, educator, and researcher based in Kissimmee, Florida. His music explores the intersections between cultural aesthetics, video game music, and the interdisciplinary artistic process. His music seeks to create immersive sonic environments that merge performance, visual art, and storytelling while remaining accessible and engaging for performers and audiences alike.

As a composer, Andy’s music covers a wide range of genres between various types of ensembles. Some genres he has written for include brass quintet, woodwind quintet, mixed ensemble, chamber orchestra, wind ensemble, electroacoustic music, percussion ensemble, vocal solo, and solo with accompanied piano. Andy’s music takes inspiration from art, literature, tabletop games, and video games as those areas have deeply influenced his approach to narrative, atmosphere, and musical world-building.

As a researcher, Andy explores ludomusicology, with a particular focus on how music in video games shapes player experience, narrative engagement, and cultural understanding. His research examines the relationship between sound, gameplay, and player interaction, often drawing from Japanese role-playing games and contemporary game music practices. Through his scholarly work, he aims to make ludomusicology more accessible to composers, performers, and scholars by connecting analytical research with practical compositional applications. Andy’s current research projects investigate musical world- building in the Persona series and the role of Koichi Sugiyama’s compositional voice in shaping the musical identity of Dragon Quest, reflecting his broader interest in how music functions as both an artistic and interactive medium.

Andy holds a B.M. in Music Composition from the University of Central Florida, and soon an M.M. in Music Composition from Ohio University. Andy’s primary mentors include Alex Burtzos, Robert McClure, and Jamie Leigh Sampson. He plans to continue composing to find more creative ideas for his works in other fields such as science and mathematics as well.