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Introducing Artist VIP
Michael Norsworthy - Acclaimed Soloist,
spearheading proponent of New Music -
Professor of
Clarinet / Bass Clarinet at Boston Conservatory at Berklee; Chair Woodwind
Department, TBCB; Director of Contemporary Music Performance,TBCB; Artistic
Advisor for Henri Selmer Paris and Artist Clinician for Vandoren SAS
Biography
MICHAEL NORSWORTHY’s virtuosity and unique voice on the clarinet have
made him a sought after soloist and chamber music collaborator and garnered
praise from critics and audiences around the globe. His performances have taken
him to distinguished concert venues including Vienna’s Musikverein, Moscow’s
Tchaikovsky Philharmonie Hall, New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and
Miller Theatre, Boston’s Jordan and Symphony Halls, St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert
Hall, Festival Casals de Puerto Rico and the Aspen Music Festival.
Mr. Norsworthy is one of the most celebrated champions of the modern repertoire.
To date, he has given over 125 world premieres with leading contemporary music
groups, including Klangforum Wien, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Manhattan
Sinfonietta, Fromm Players at Harvard, Boston Musica Viva, Callithumpian Consort
in Boston, Ensemble 21 in New York and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
He has collaborated with a veritable who’s who of composers from around the
globe including Pierre Boulez, Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter, Chris Dench,
Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy, Lukas Foss, Hans Werner Henze, Helmut
Lachenmann and Magnus Lindberg among many others.
Recent seasons have included world premieres of works written for
him by Michael Finnissy, Hans Tutschku and Pozzi Escot, domestic and
international recital tours with pianists Marilyn Nonken, Tyson Deaton, David
Gompper and Yoko Hagino, radio appearances on Boston’s WGBH, multiple
performances on the Composer Portraits Series at New York’s Miller Theatre,
concerto performances with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Manhattan
Sinfonietta, concerts with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Portland Chamber
Music Festival and and Midwestern tours with the Iowa Center for New Music and
the Maia String Quartet.
As soloist he has performed an extensive repertoire of concerti, ranging from
Mozart to Ferneyhough, with the Manhattan Sinfonietta, Boston Modern Orchestra
Project, Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, Callithumpian Consort, Pottstown Symphony,
Southern Illinois Symphony and Symphony Pro Musica. As a recitalist, he
regularly performs with pianists Yoko Hagino, Michael Finnissy and David Gompper.
Mr. Norsworthy has enjoyed chamber music collaborations with pianists Judith
Gordon, Stephen Drury, Mihae Lee and Aleck Karis, violinists Harumi Rhodes,
Jonathan Crow and Norbert Brainin, violists Roger Tapping and Carol Rodland,
cellists Rhonda Rider and Patrick Demenga, singers Tony Arnold and Timothy
Jones, saxophonistJohn Zorn, the Borromeo String Quartet, and players from major
orchestras in Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and
Vienna.
As
an orchestral musician he has performed with leading groups including the
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Boston Philharmonic and Boston
Ballet and is currently principal clarinet with the Boston Modern Orchestra
Project. As a member of the Star Wars Symphony Orchestra, he has performed
for combined audiences of over 730,000 people in the USA, Canada and Mexico with
the touring production “Star Wars In Concert”.
Norsworthy is interested in breaking down barriers that exist between classical
music and popular and jazz as well as collaborating with artists working in
other mediums. He has shared the stage with such popular and jazz icons as
Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Savion Glover and Bela Fleck. He worked in
the motion picture industry and toured with numerous musical theater productions
as a woodwind doubler on saxophone and been presented by the New Gallery Concert
Series, Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston and the Institute for Contemporary Art in
Boston alongside works by major visual artists.
His
current discography numbers over 40 releases and can be found on the Albany,
Mode, Gasparo, Canteloupe, BMOP/sound, ECM, Nonesuch, Cirrus Music and Cauchemar
labels. Future projects include a CD of chamber music by composer Magnus
Lindberg, clarinet music by Michael Finnissy and a recital CD of American music
with pianist, David Gompper
Currently,
Norsworthy is Professor of Clarinet and Bass Clarinet, Chair of the Woodwind
Department and Director of Contemporary Music Performance at The Boston
Conservatory at Berklee. He is constantly in demand at schools of music
around the world and has presented master classes and clinics at prestigious
schools all over the USA, Canada, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. He has served
as artist in residence at Harvard University with the Harvard Group for New
Music and was on the artist faculty at Columbia University. He is an
active board member for American Century Music and Massachusetts State Chairman
for the International Clarinet Association. He is a Selmer Paris Artistic
Advisor and an artist clinician for Vandoren. As a former artist for D'Addario
Woodwinds, he collaborated with D'Addario on the development of the Reserve
Classic line of reeds for B-flat clarinet and bass clarinet and with Selmer
Paris on the redesign of the Privilège lines of instruments.
Mr.
Norsworthy holds advanced degrees from New England Conservatory and Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale, and has attended Michigan State University.
His teachers include Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Eric Mandat, Kalmen Opperman and
Richard Stoltzman. He is the recipient of many awards and distinctions,
among them: The John Cage Award, Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award and
Southern Illinois University’s Chancellor’s Research and Creativity Award,
grants from the Yvar Mikahashoff Trust for New Music, St. Louis Artist
Presentation Society and St. Botolph Club Foundation and a fellowship from the
Aspen Music Festival. He has written scholarly works for the New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians and articles for the quarterly journal The
Clarinet.
New Information Under development
Message from Michael Norsworthy
Agendas and Performance and Teaching Philosophy
Upcoming Events and Workshops
Copyright © 1999 WKA-Clarinet.org. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 14, 2019