• The CDs I recorded in May will be coming out later this summer!
Here is a preview of one of the covers and a couple of possible covers
for the other one.
• I posted MP3's of several of my recent live performances on
my Recordings page. Click here or access
"Recordings" in the menu above.
• In September, I will be the featured guest artist at
the Iowa Clarinet Day
2008. This is my first trip to Iowa and I am really excited about
it! Pianist Rasa
Vitkauskaite will join me in a recital there on September 6, and
I will also be teaching several masterclasses at both Drake
University in Des Moines and Central
College in Pella. Rasa and I just made a new recording together,
Rhapsodie Francaise, which will be released very soon on the
Ongaku Records label!
• In July, I performed a duo recital with Howard
Klug at the ClarinetFest
in Kansas City, Missouri. We premiered several new works for two clarinets
and piano in various combinations. The new works included a great
new duo by Simon Sargon called
"Birds of a Feather.." for two A clarinets. Two other premieres
included Don Freund
Rite Now! and Michael
Kibbe Shiva Dances (both for clarinet,
bass clarinet and piano). It was a great pleasure to collaborate once
again with renowned pedagogue and performer Howard Klug who played
some amazing bass clarinet! See
pics here
• In June, I taught and performed at the beautiful Domaine
Forget festival in St. Irenée, Quebec. The students there
were wonderful, the festival was expertly managed and organized and
all of my colleagues were world class! I spent a wonderful week teaching
along side Marie
Picard and Lawrie Bloom.
While there I also had the great opportunity to perform Stockhausen
In Freundschaft on a special Stockhausen memorial
concert. That was a special treat. My last night there I had the great
privilege of hearing the phenomenal pianist Gabriela
Montero play several breathtakingly beautiful and amazing improvisations
based on themes offered from the audience. Wow! I will remember that
forever. Lawrie, Marie and I had a great time working together both
in teaching clarinet and winning at ping pong! And Marie Picard was
the most gracious host ever!
• In May, I recorded two new CDs. One includes Brahms Trio
in A Minor, Op. 144, Beethoven Trio in B-flat
Major, Op. 11, and Dohnanyi Sextet in C Majory,
Op. 47. The CD was a wonderful and rewarding collaboration with the
Claremont Trio
(Emily Bruskin-violin, Julia Bruskin-cello, Donna Kwong-piano), Jamie Sommerville
(horn, Principal of Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Mai Motobuchi (viola,
.Borromeo Quartet). The second is an all-French CD of works for clarinet
and piano by Saint-Saens, Debussy, Widor, Messager, Rabaud, Chausson,
Bozza and Cahuzac. On this CD, I teamed up with
a fabulous young Lithuanian pianist, Rasa Vitkauskaite. We had so much fun
making this CD together that we are already planning several more! Both
CDs will be released in August.
•
In November 2007, I was in Caracas, Venezuela for 10 days. While there I
conducted a wonderful performance of the Simon Bolivar Symphonic
Band playing Respighi Pines of Rome and
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Finale, as well as
the Rimsky-Korsakov Clarinet Concerto with soloist
Jorge Montilla and several other works. I also taught masterclasses every
day as part of the new Masters Degree program in clarinet of the Universidad
Simon Bolivar. Pictures of the band, soloists, me, the students, my masterclasses
and the dancing afterwards are all here!
• On October 7, 2007, I played a faculty recital at the Longy School
of Music. Joining me on the program was a fabulous young piano trio with
Judith Lee (violin), Tess Remy-Schumacher (cello) and Christopher Cooley
(piano). A few pictures from the reception after the concert are here.
•
In July 2007, I taught and performed at the International Winter Festival
of Campos do Jordao, Brazil where the weather was
cooler than last year (sometimes as low as 32 degrees F at night) but when
it was beautiful and sunny in the day time, it was more like ~75 degrees
F. I had six wonderful fellowship students there from Brazil, Venezuela,
Argentina and Costa Rica. I conducted a performance of the Dvorak Serenade
for Winds, Op. 44. Here are the 200+
pictures I took while there.
• ClarinetFest 2007
took place in Vancouver, Canada from July 4 to 8 on the campus
of the University of British Columbia.
A good time was had by all. I played a recital there in the beautiful Chan
Centre for the Performing Arts and taught a musical interpretation masterclass
featuring some of the contestants (and winners!) of the orchestral and solo
competitions.
•
On June 30, I returned from a two-and-a-half-week tour of China with the
Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of NEC. As always, this YPO tour was a thrilling
experience for all involved. The orchestra played 12 concerts in 14 days
in 10 cities! We visited Beijing, Shichiazhuang, Tianjin, Shenyang, Anshan,
Yingkou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. I took more than 600 pictures
of the tour, so you can see them and make prints from snapfish.com by
clicking here.
• IWWF 2007 was a blast from
May 29 to June 10 at the Boston Conservatory. Check out this live
performance of the Ponchielli
Il Convegno with me and Jessica Phillips (New York Metropolitan
Opera). To view and get prints of pictures from IWWF 2007 click
here for my photos or click
here for Kathleen's photos.
The clarinet faculty included yours
truly, Valdemar Rodriguez (Simon
Bolivar Orchestra), Jessica Philipps
(New York Metropolitan Opera), Robert
Spring (soloist), and Michael
Norsworthy (soloist, Boston Conservatory). We also had the brilliant,
young Claremont Trio in residence
and three fabulous pianists: Shizue Sano,
Eliko Akahori, and Yoko
Kida.
Here's a live performance of me with the Claremont
Trio playing the sixth
Bruch piece! From left to right, that's Julie Bruskin (cello),
Emily Bruskin (violin), me, and Donna Kwong (piano).
Here's a live performance of me with the Claremont Trio playing the
third movement of Beethoven
Trio, Op. 11!
• Listen to this live recording of me and Paquito D'Rivera
playing his piece Contradanza
from Paquito's Aires Tropicales Suite. Alon Yavnai is the formidable
pianist. See if you can tell which one is Paquito and which one is
me!
•
In May 2007, I took seven groups that I coach to compete in both the Junior
and Senior Divisions of the Fischoff Competition.
All seven made the Quarterfinals, three made the Semifinals and one of my
groups, Attacca Quartet, won 3rd Prize in the Junior Division! For pictures
of the trip, click here.
• In April 2007, I had an wonderful time in Caracas conducting the
Simon Bolivar Orchestra! We did Bernstein's West Side Story Suite of
Symphonic Dances to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that revolutionary,
one-of-a-kind musical. Pictures
here. Video clips to come. Stay tuned!
• At the beginning of March 2007, I was featured at the
10th International Clarinet Festival of Lisbon. The festival
was held in a beautiful palace, so I guess we got the "royal"
treatment! As always, the seafood was delicious, and although the
weather was unseasonably cold the performances by artists from all
over the world were wonderful. I got a chance to collaborate with
the superb Lisbon
Clarinet Quartet on "Aires Tropicales" by Paquito
D'Rivera and with Jessica
Phillips of the New York Metropolitan Opera orchestra (and a former
student) on "Il Covegno" by Amilcare Ponchielli. My wonderful
pianist was Aniko Harangi. Pictures
from Lisbon
•
In February 2007, Shanghai was an eye-opener once again. The rate of construction
and growth in that city and at the Conservatory is simply phenomenal. The
clarinet students there are uniformly excellent, and as always the food
is delectable and plentiful. Masterclasses almost every day plus rehearsals
and a recital made for a busy time. But I was very happy to play together
with my former student Izumi Fujiyama who has developed into first-rate
professional. My excellent pianist was Xie Beni. Pictures
from Shanghai
• In January 2007, I had a transformational experience conducting
the Texas All-State Orchestra in an incredible performance of Dvorak
Carneval Overture and Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.
What great people and what unbridled energy and talent! That was my first
experience with a standing ovation following the overture!
•
See my photos from the 2006 Festival
Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. I was
there for a very exciting three weeks of masterclasses, conducting and concerts.
I played the Mozart Concerto with the orchestra from Santo
André and the Mozart Quintet as well as the Martinu
Nonet.
• Read the great story from The Enterprise on Sunday, April 23,
2006 here.
•
In January 2006, I was in Caracas,
Venezuela, where I conducted Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 with
the Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar. Wow what an orchestra! The musical
spirit in Venezuela is absolutely incredible. I also played a recital and
taught several masterclasses there.
•
In summer 2005, I was in Japan and
Taiwan where it was really hot!
From July 16 to July 24, I was in Tama, Tokyo at the ClarinetFest
and from July 30 to August 5, I was in Taipei at The 2nd International Clarinet
Festival of Taiwan where I played the Copland Concerto with the Evergreen
Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, a gorgeous hall.
• In June 2005, I went on a tour of Venezuela
and Brazil with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of New England Conservatory.
•
The 2005 International Woodwind Festival
from May 31 to June 12 in Boston at The Boston Conservatory was a big success.
You can see pictures
from the festival too.
• Check out the video clip here from the Brockton Symphony Orchestra
performance of The
Rite of Spring in spring 2005 at Jordan Hall!
• In March 2005, I was in Lisbon,
Portugal.where the cod fish was great, and the people were even
better! While there I performed and taught as part of the 8th International
Clarinet Encounter of Lisbon.
•
In November 2004, I was in Caracas,
Venezuela where I performed and taught at the 6th Festival de Jóvenes
Clarinetistas Venezolanos.
• During the summer of 2004, I spent a week in Argentina
and two weeks in China playing concerts, teaching, and conducting
in Rosario, Buenos
Aires, Yantai,
and Changchun.
Pictures from Buenos Aires.
Pictures from festival in Yantai.
Pictures from festival in Changchun, China.
The site is updated regularly so stop by again soon!
