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March 2018 Hot News
30 March 2018
Victoria Luperi (2nd Clarinetist in the Pittsburgh Symphony) Master Class at the Buffet New York Showroom
New York City USA
30 March 2018
VIP Robert Spring, Professor at Arizona State University, gives Master Classes at the Chinese National Conservatory
Beijing, China
We’ve made 3 days of master class in Beijing. One day in Central
Conservatory of Music of China(March 31st.) one day in China Conservatory of
Music(April 1st.), and one day in Music conservatory of Central Nationality
University (March 30th). Then we organized a concert for him in Central
Conservatory on April 1st.
Then we organized a concert for him in Central Conservatory on April 1st.
Sorry, Masterclass in China Conservatory of Music is on April 2nd.
The concert hall was full! Both of masterclass and concert are very
successful!
We invited string quartet from China Philharmonic to join the concert with
Bob.
Bob also meet Madam Tao, who on the cover of the latest Clarinet Magazine
25 - 26 March 2018
VIP Gabor Varga, Solo Clarinetist in the Hungarian Radio Symphony in Budapest, Hungary, gives Master Classes in New York including the Buffet Showroom
New York City USA
24 - 27 March 2018
Gran Canaria International Clarinet Festival - Radovan Cavallin, Director
Canary Islands, Spain
24 March 2018
Ohio University Clarinet Gala - Dr Rebecca Rischin, Director
Athens, Ohio USA
On Saturday, March 24, 2018, Ohio University hosted its fifteenth clarinet gala, a full day of clarinet events for all ages and interests, in collaboration with Flute Fest and Double Reed Extravaganza. In its sixth year was the Honors Clarinet Choir, featuring outstanding high school students selected competitively from schools from all over Ohio and Michigan. All events took place in Robert Glidden Hall, the School of Music, on the campus of Ohio University in Athens.The featured guest artist was David Gresham, Professor of Clarinet at Illinois State University in Normal. He presented a wonderful master class featuring Ohio University students and selected high school students from the 2018 Ohio University Honors Clarinet Choir, and a fantastic recital with Momoko Gresham along with the visiting artist for Flute Fest, Heidi Pintner Alvarez, Professor of Flute at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. The recital featured works by Gaubert, Bozza, Ibert, Schwantner, Christiansen, Clarke, Bax, and Arnold.
In addition to Gresham's recital and master class, the day included a presentation on reed care with Rebecca Rischin, Professor of Clarinet at Ohio University; and a hosts recital featuring Rischin; Matthew Morris, Associate Lecturer of Bassoon; and Christopher Fisher, Professor of Piano. They performed works by Kovacs and Glinka. The Honors Clarinet Choir, Honors Bassoon Choir, and Honors Flute Choir presented a super grand finale concert performing works by Louke, Biebl, Glinka, Baldwin, Frackenpohl, Picquer and Goddauer. Current Ohio University students also performed in the flute, bassoon, and clarinet choirs. The day also featured a pizza lunch, and members of the Honors Clarinet Choir received t-shirts with an Ohio University Clarinet Gala/Honors Clarinet Choir design. Woodwind instrument and accessories exhibitors graced the Glidden Hall lobby.
23 - 25 March 2018
YaoGuang Zhai, Solo Clarinetist in the Baltimore Symphony, performs Weber 2nd Clarinet Concerto Op 74
Baltimore and Bethesda, Maryland USA
24 March 2018
Troy University Clarinet Day, VIP Timothy Phillips, Director
Troy, Alabama USA
A Review by Katrina R.
Phillips
For one day each spring, Troy University has become a destination for the
clarinet world. Dr. Timothy Phillips, the clarinet professor at Troy University,
has consistently rounded up several of the most current performers, pedagogues,
and craftsmen. This year the event was held on Saturday, March 24, and featured
people and repertoire, which created a dazzling mix of the eclectic to the
eccentric. Thanks to the Troy University John M. Long School of Music as well as
the sponsors Buffet Crampon USA, Vandoren USA, BG France, D’Addario, Backun
Musical Services, Silverstein Works, and Yamaha who all enabled college and high
school clarinet students to experience the day’s events. The day included
master-classes and performances by: stellar bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern;
the lovely Maria du Toit, who is a South African clarinetist living in the
Netherlands; along with appearances by the future professor of clarinet at the
University of North Texas, Phillip O. Paglialonga; Polish clarinetist and master
repair person Wojtek Komsta; Katrina Phillips, clarinetist and professor at
Alabama State University; Jennifer Fraley, lecturer at Troy University; and
pianist Eun-Hee Park, who currently teaches piano at the University of
Montevallo in Alabama. The opening recital took place in the choral room at
the school of music and included: ClaridueTicos, I. Allegro, by Luciano Eliecer
Brenes Aguilar played by clarinetists Timothy Phillips and Jennifer Fraley;
Sonata for Clarinet & Piano , I. Grazioso
by Leonard Bernstein, played by Katrina Phillips, clarinet and Eun-Hee Park,
piano; and the Sonatina for Clarinet Solo by Miklos Rozsa, played by Phillip O.
Paglialonga, clarinet.
The topic of collaboration between instrument repair-person and clarinetist was presented by Wojtek Komsta of High Quality Clarinet Repair and professor Phillip O. Paglialonga. Students learned about the benefits of a well-sealed clarinet and why it is important to visit a specialist yearly, if not more often. Spring resistance, key height, and barrel design were additional topics discussed. Both Michael Lowenstern and Maria du Toit also taught informative clarinet performance master-classes. Michael Lowenstern’s bass clarinet recital had the room set with speakers and microphones. He used pre-recorded tracks as well as electronics, which he operated through a system of foot pedals and played improvised music on his bass clarinet. His program consisted of his original works and included: Arms Out, Stomp, Little Bit, Ariel’s Hands, and Drift . He described his inspirations for the pieces with anecdotal stories including one for Ariel’s Hands in which his daughter criticized his clap track. He then proceeded to have audience members record claps and one sung tone. This generated the track over which he performed the piece. In the afternoon Maria du Toit, clarinet performed alongside Eun-Hee Park, piano in a recital of old and new. Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces and Ernest Chausson’s Andante et allegro as the old ‘per se’ and Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Peter Klatzow (b. 1945) as the new. The sonata has three movements: “Andante”, “Vivace, con fuoco” and “Like light at the edge of a shadow”. Their performance was beautiful and intriguing.
24 March 2018
Tennessee Tech University Clarinet Day
Murfreesboro, Tennessee USA
23 March 2018
Atlanta Symphony clarinetist Laura Ardan named as Mabel Dorn Reeder Chair with a $1.5 million endowment established in 2011 A gift from the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, the endowment is awarded for a period of five years to a member of the ASO who demonstrates excellence in musical artistry, leadership, collegiality and community engagement. Ardan will also receive a one-time stipend to be utilized for professional development
Atlanta, Georgia USA
Laura Ardan, principal clarinet for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is the recipient of the Mabel Dorn Reeder Honorary Chair, a $1.5 million endowment established in 2011.
A gift from the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, the endowment is awarded for a period of five years to a member of the ASO who demonstrates excellence in musical artistry, leadership, collegiality and community engagement. Ardan will also receive a one-time stipend to be utilized for professional development.
“I am so very honored to be chosen,” Ardan said in a press release. “It is brilliant to infuse someone with this privilege.”
Ardan has performed with the orchestra since 1982 and also holds the Robert Shaw Chair. She has often been a featured soloist with the ASO and is a regular performer at the Highlands Chamber Music Festival and the Grand Teton Chamber Music Festival.
She attended The Juilliard School of Music on scholarships and before she joined the ASO was a resident clarinetist and teaching artist at the Lincoln Center Institute.
Reeder, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 98, was a South Carolina native who married and moved to Atlanta.
“Mrs. Reeder called Atlanta home for most of her life and wholly understood the value a fine orchestra can have to a growing city,” said Brian Frank, cotrustee of the foundation. “The Mabel Dorn Reeder Honorary Chair is an exceptional tribute to her love of music.”
ASO executive director Jennifer Barlament said Ardan is an excellent choice for the endowment. “Laura is not only one of the most engaged and compelling musicians to grace our stage, she is equally engaged off the stage, serving as a community ambassador and teaching many aspiring young clarinetists, including our own second clarinetist Marci Gurnow.”
17 March 2018
Baylor University Clarinet Festival - Dr. Jun Qian, Director
Waco, Texas USA
15 March 2018
VIP Alexander Fiterstein Recital at Buffet New York Showroom
New York City USA
14 March 2018
Senior VIP Richard Stoltzman Master Class and Solo Performance at the University of Northern Florida
Jacksonville, Florida USA -
14 March 2018
Nico Bertelli, authority on Early Chaleameau and Clarinets - Suminar and Master Class at the Milan Conservatory - VIP Luigi Magistrelli, Host
Milan, Italy
12 March 2018
VIP and Solo Klarinettist in the Berliner Philharmoniker Wenzel Fuchs Master Class
Bouldgne-Billancourt
4 March 2018
Clarinetist David Shifrin, recipient of Chamber Music America CMA’s 2018 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award
Boston, Massachusetts USA
Some musicians land a spot in an orchestra. Some musicians—though not many—become famous, well-traveled soloists. Some carve out a freelance life full of various affiliations.
Some become presenters, building a festival or a series for themselves and their fellow musicians. Some become teachers. Some are true innovators, creating musical opportunities that did not previously exist.
Almost no one does it all.
David Shifrin is among the few.
What you know about David Shifrin probably depends on where you’ve intersected with him. For many, especially in New York, it would be his twenty-year tenure as artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. For some, he may have been a colleague, years ago, in one of many orchestras: when he was principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, or the American Symphony Orchestra, or in Dallas or Honolulu.
Maybe you were lucky enough to share a chamber music stage with him, like the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and other quartets have, or like Emanuel Ax, or Wynton Marsalis. Or maybe you sat in his classrooms at Yale, where he has taught and directed the chamber music society since 1987.
Or at Juilliard, at the Cleveland Institute of Music, or Southern Cal or Michigan.
Maybe you made a recording with him, on one of half-a-dozen labels—perhaps one of the many recordings that have received Grammy nominations. Perhaps you are one of the more than a dozen composers who have written new works for him. Or maybe you are one of the many to have collaborated with Shifrin at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, where he has been artistic director for almost four decades. Or maybe you were an audience member, at CMNW, or CMSLC, or on one of his many tours.
“The music world is full of people who are self-serving and ambitious, driving forward and leaving everyone in their wake,” says the composer and pianist Bruce Adolphe, one of David Shifrin’s long-time colleagues. “David has never been like that.”
Adolphe and Shifrin have their own intersections. They’ve worked together for years in Portland and in New York as chamber music collaborators—mainly with Shifrin as chief administrator, and Adolphe as composer-in-residence, performer, or guest lecturer. Shifrin has performed multiple works written by Adolphe, some of them world premieres. He even played at Adolphe’s wedding.
“Honestly, his leadership style is kind of like playing chamber music,” Adolphe says.
“Everything emerges in a collaborative way. It’s not like he feels that he has to do everything. He is a facilitator. Just like in a string quartet, everyone collaborates. They chip in their own ideas, they discuss interpretations. And in the end, it’s not a consensus, it’s more like a common vision. Not a compromise at all, it evolves into a personality, like a family. Really good leadership is like that.”
Shifrin started in orchestras—a couple of the best, especially for a musician at the beginning of his career. He was concertmaster in the American Symphony Orchestra, under Stokowski, and then performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, under Lorin Maazel. Those experiences were rewarding, and offered security—not the least of any musician’s concern—but his notion of success was broader.
“My ideal of what a career is, and what a life in music is, goes back another century,” Shifrin says. “I look at someone like Richard Mühlfeld. Brahms wrote great clarinet works for him. He was a concerto soloist. He was a soloist in Bayreuth, for Wagner. He toured with Joseph Joachim. Why would a musician have to be one thing, or another? I’ve tried to live that way.
“My early experience, the first five years or so of my career—well, I look back on that with some mixed satisfaction at the results,” he says, thinking about his time with the American Symphony, and with Cleveland. “I loved that repertory, and I’ve always tried to keep that connection.
“The more resilient and adaptable you are, the better. You get the most bang for your buck in chamber music—you can do more things at the highest level."
“But then I went to Michigan”—Shifrin taught there from 1976–82—“which gave me all kinds of opportunities. I was still doing international competitions, and playing a lot, but it put me in a new mindset. I realized that it took a certain amount of entrepreneurial skill, and motivation, if you were really interested in creating your own career, the one you wanted for yourself.
“It’s really wonderful to have a paycheck every week, and the pension that comes from being in an orchestra,” he says. “But I had the security of teaching. And besides, taking control is nothing new; it’s not something that has just happened in the last 40 years.
“Think of Mozart, and Beethoven, even Bach, trying to sell their scores. Trying to build subscription audiences. There are many elements to what some folks do to take charge of their careers.”
Taking charge is what he did. Chamber music can be rewarding in many ways—the repertory, the collaborations, the intimacy. But Shifrin also dove into the behind-the-scenes activities—and has continued to do so for almost five decades.
“It’s a great joy just to pick up the phone, answer a call, and get invited somewhere to play the clarinet, where other individuals are responsible for the organizing, and the audience.
“But being aware of how the sausage gets made—it never changes, for one thing,” Shifrin says, “and it’s not rocket science. It is labor intensive, and it’s about partnerships. Between musicians, and music lovers.
“I came to Chamber Music Northwest in the earliest stages—I think it was the seventh year,” he says,
referring to the Portland festival that he has led since 1981. “Now it’s approaching 50. It was just two or three concerts in that city, a city that did not have that much music going on in the summer.
“Fast forward 48 seasons, and we have tens of thousands of people coming every year. A budget that was about ten thousand dollars now is probably something like a couple million, and creeping up.
“You realize that you can do it, but it also speaks to the wonderful adaptability of chamber music, and how you can build on that.”
Along the way, many musicians have benefited. His directorship at CMNW, and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (1992–2004), created opportunities that allow younger performers to follow his model—the let’s-have-it-all type of career.
“That kind of musical life is still possible, and I know it because I’ve seen what’s happened with the players in CSMLC Two,” Adolphe says, “which, of course, Shifrin started.”
Shifrin began CSMLC Two in 1995 as a three-year residency program for young artists. Fellows who have benefited from the experience include the Brentano, Borromeo, Escher, Pacifica, Jupiter, and Danish string quartets; individuals like cellist Alisa Weilerstein; violinists Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Frautschi,
Nick Eanet, Frank Huang and Colin Jacobsen; and pianists like Lang Lang, Gilles Vonsattel, Shai Wosner and Jonathan Biss. It’s an entire generation of performers, familiar to audiences as recitalists, soloists, and innovators on their own.
“I guess now it’s this feeling of being a parental figure,” Adolphe says. “Over the years, we’ve had a build-up, a circle of friends, both together and with these players. David is very loyal. It’s just this endless feeling of growing together.”
For Adolphe, the quality of the performing is also part of the leadership. “David’s playing is enchanting, and at the highest level,” he says. “It’s not simply something admirable, to be enjoyed. It’s very important from a leadership point of view as well, when you’re providing your own viewpoint of how to do something.”
Because of the opportunities Shifrin has helped create, Adolphe feels the classical music industry is in a better place than it was a generation ago. Avenues for composers, performers and presenters have opened up, fueled by the diversity of input.
“I think it is more likely for musicians to have a rich career,” Adolphe says. “I know for young composers there are more opportunities, there are more chances for voices from different backgrounds. And look at institutions: Marlboro has always been there, but now many other music schools are expanding that notion, giving young players a chance to study and perform with professionals?
“David believed that, from the first time I met him, in 1986. He was a warm guy, and he wanted to surround himself with others. It became a family. And he made it real, when he started CMSLC Two. I know a lot of young players who have gone through that, and now think and act the same way David does. Not in competition with everyone else, or just ambitious. Making music first, and connecting with one another.”
Despite his own varied experiences, and his success on so many levels, Shifrin is slow to offer advice to younger players. When he thinks about a career in music, it’s on philosophical terms, and the advice he gives sounds a lot like empowerment, rather than specifics.
“The more resilient and adaptable you are, the better,” he says. “You get the most bang for your buck in chamber music—you can do more things at the highest level.
“It’s a competitive environment: who is going to get played, get recorded, and who is going to endure. Gifted people are getting better training. The performance level is very high—I see players coming along that can do things without thinking now, things that were difficult tasks just a generation ago. The competition level is high, and entrepreneurial programs in conservatories are helping too. In some ways there is more of everything.
“You’re a professional from the first time you charge for a concert, or request donations,” he says as a reminder. “Don’t forget that. The trajectory of your career depends on what you choose from then on.”
The Dover Quartet is one ensemble to have benefited from Shifrin’s advice. Hardly newcomers at this point in their career, Dover was invited out to CMNW when its members were young students, and that experience helped galvanize their thinking and solidify their ideas.
“His guidance in the first years was really meaningful to us,” says the group’s cellist, Camden Shaw. “He first had us out to Portland about nine years ago, and now we’ve been performing with him as well.”
“He’s wise, he’s patient,” Shaw says. “He’s a great player. He’s a very kind man, and it’s amazing to see what he accomplishes. And his way with the
“For composers, I’m fascinated by many things,” Shifrin says. “You look back at the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, to see what works are part of the canon, and what aren’t performed anymore. Fascinating. I’ve read some books about the 1940s, and 50s and 60s, and so much was written about composers that I’ve never even heard of. Works that were all the rage back then, and now you never hear them. I love looking at the past for that perspective.”
There are some practical notions about composition that Shifrin thinks will help get performances, and get pieces to remain in the canon.
“Without squelching anyone’s ambitions, I think it’s wise to think about the practicality of performing a work,” he says. “The length. The clarity. There are incredible geniuses, but they write music that is so daunting it doesn’t see the light of day.
“Write works that will be heard, that can be performed,” Shifrin suggests. “Think about who you are writing for. Maybe you don’t need to write for 175 musicians.
“And don’t forget that the world premiere of a piece is not always the definitive performance. With consortiums commissioning works, there is a better chance that there will be more performances. The more performers play it, the more it has a chance to grow.”
audience—he presents commissions that will last, and educates the audience so that they are not only prepared, but they get excited about a piece.”
If anyone can offer them encouragement and direction to composers, it’s a performer like Shifrin, who has sought out new works by a range of voices—John Adams, Joan Tower, Stephen Albert, Adolphe, Ezra Laderman, Lalo Schifrin, David Schiff, John Corigliano, Bright Sheng, and Ellen Zwilich among them—and tackled difficult new works.
“I think that in the same way there are many more really fine performers today, there are many more gifted composers as well,” Shifrin says.
Shifrin has some of his most ardent advice for audiences—audiences that he has helped build in many ways over the course of more than four decades of performing, presenting, and proselytizing for his art-form.
“I don’t think audiences have shrunk at all,” he says firmly. “I do think the ratio of music purveyors to audience has shifted, and I’ve had many thoughts over the years about how to tackle that.
“We have the highest number of influences ever in music, and the greatest depth of them as well,” he says. “I say to audiences: keep an open mind. What you’ve heard to date, that’s just your experience of a particular period—simply what you’ve experienced to this point. This is the most eclectic period in music history.”
Keith Powers covers music and the arts in the Boston area for the GateHouse newspapers and WBUR's ARTery.
3 - 4 March 2018
University of Alabama (UAB) Clarinet Symposium - with VIP Jessica Phillips - Dr Denise Gainey, Director
Birmingham, Alabama USA
2 - 3 March 2018
Clarinet Colloquium - Texas A & M University - VIP Mary Alice Druhan, Director
Commerce, Texas USA