Hudson was educated at the
Manhattan School of Music and
Smith College. She completed a Master of Arts and a
PhD titled
Narrative in Verdi: perspectives on his musical dramaturgy at
Cornell University. Hudson was then director of undergraduate programmes in the
University of Virginia's McIntire Department of Music. Hudson was appointed to the faculty of
Victoria University of Wellington in 2006, as professor of musicology. Hudson led the merger of the
Massey University Conservatorium of Music and the Victoria University School of Music to create the
New Zealand School of Music (NZSM), of which she was the inaugural director. One of Hudson's notable doctoral students is soprano
Margaret Medlyn. Hudson stepped down from the directorship of NZSM in 2013, and took up a position as Dean of the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University. Hudson specialises in opera studies, and has published on
Donizetti,
Puccini, as well as a critical edition of Verdi's
Il Corsaro. Hudson has held a number of fellowships, including the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellowship at
Downing College, Cambridge University, and a Lilly Teaching Fellowship. She was a founding editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal. == Selected works ==