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Historical Piano Concerts Series
About the Musicians

Chester Brezniak

Chester Brezniak, clarinet

For more than three decades clarinetist Chester Brezniak has performed extensively as a chamber music, solo, and orchestral player. He served as principal clarinet with the Orquestra Sinfonica de Sao Paulo, Brazil, was a member of the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, principal with the Hanover Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Czech Radio Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, and is presently principal clarinetist with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra.

A founding member of The New York Times and Boston Globe critically acclaimed Cambridge Chamber Players, Atlanta Virtuosi, Blackstone Trio, Soli Espri, and the Ariel Chamber Ensemble, Brezniak has appeared as guest artist on the Fromm Foundation Series for Contemporary Music at Sanders Theater, Harvard University; for the Raphael Trio's chamber music festival in Ouray, CO; the summer chamber series at St. Gaudens National Historic Site; with the Muir and Vermeer String Quartets; Alea III under Gunther Schuller and Theodore Antoniou; with the Zamir Chorale of Boston under Joshua Jacobson and with many other groups. He appeared in concert as a member of the Orliac Trio on the "Entrée des Artistes" Series in Orliac, France 2008; at Clark University, 2011; and at the St. Gaudens National Historic Site’s concert series. Mr. Brezniak has been heard on NPR both in live and recorded performances. As a founding member of Soli Espri and the Blackstone Trio, he has appeared on numerous concert series at Allegheny College, Baruch College, the Duxbury Arts Complex, the Currier Gallery in Manchester, NH, in addition to appearances in Boston’s First Night Celebration and at the Worcester Schubertiad for the American Schubert Institute in Tuckerman Hall. On December 2, 2012 he appeared as soloist in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the Waltham Symphony under Patrick Botti.

Recordings include Centaur Records release of Clarinet Now, and Zemlinsky’s Trio in D Minor, Op.3 on Northeastern Records. A member of the Adjunct Music Faculty, UMass/Boston; Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Clark University, he received his B.A. at Bard College and M.M. at New England Conservatory of Music where he studied clarinet with Attilio Poto, Gino Cioffi, Charles Russo, and Harold Wright and chamber music with Luis Garcia-Renart, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Kolisch. Brezniak also performed in masterclasses with Robert Marcellus and Stanley Drucker.