SHEPEHRD SCHOOL CLARINETS PERFORM FOR RICHARD STOLTZMAN

Shepherd School clarinet students Maiko Sasaki, Hsing-Hui Hsu, Philip Broderick, and Brian Viliunas performed for world renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman in a master class in Duncan Recital Hall on Friday, October 1st.

Miako Sasaki performed the Dances Preludes of Witold Lutoslawski along with pianist Kana Mimaki. Hsing-Hui Hsu with Patti Wolf performed portions of the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1 of Johannes Brahms. Philip Broderick with Webster Trio pianist Robert Moeling performed portions of the Sonate, Op. 176 of Camille Saint-Seans. Finally, Brian Viliunas performed the Five Pieces for Clarinet Alone by William O. Smith. All of the performers on the master class were clarinet students of Michael Webster.

Richard Stoltzman's virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have catapulted him to the highest ranks of international acclaim, making him one of today's most sought-after concert artists. As a soloist with more than a hundred orchestras, a captivating recitalist and chamber music performer, and an innovative jazz artist, Stoltzman has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike with his performances of all genres of music.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a jazz-playing railwayman, Richard Stoltzman spent his early years in San Francisco and then moved to Cincinnati. His musical education started with his father's saxophone sessions and informal church concerts. After high school in Cincinnati, Stoltzman entered Ohio State University as a double-major in music and mathematics. Stoltzman went on to earn a Master of Music degree at Yale University while studying with Keith Wilson, and later worked toward a doctoral degree with Kalmen Opperman at Columbia University. In 1967, he began what was to be a ten-year association with the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Marlboro's focus on chamber music put him in direct contact with such musical luminaries as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals and Marcel Moyse - artists who were to have a profound effect on the way Stoltzman regarded his music-making. Through musical relationships established there, he became a founding member of the chamber music group TASHI in 1973.

Since then, Stoltzman's unique way with the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument no one could have predicted, including presenting the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. In 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, joining such other eminent recipients as Richard Goode and Yo-Yo Ma. Hailed for doing for the clarinet what Rampal and Galway have done for the flute, Stoltzman has appeared as soloist with Levine and the New York Philharmonic, Dohnànyi and the Orchestra of La Scala, Chailly and the Berlin Radio Symphony, Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra, and Eschenbach and Previn with the Pittsburgh Symphony. As a member of TASHI, he has premiered works by Takemitsu and Wuorinen with the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.

The master class was supported through a generous donation from the Kung Family Woodwind Guest Artist Program.