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Historical Piano Concerts Series
About the Musicians

Charles Neidich

 Charles Neidich, clarinet

Charles Neidich, hailed by the New Yorker as "a master of his instrument and beyond,” and called a legend in his time, is active not only as a soloist and collaborator in chamber music programs, performing with leading ensembles such as the St. Louis, Minneapolis, MDR , Moscow State Symphonies, NHK Symphony and Tokyo Philharmonic and the Juilliard, Pro Arte, Brentano, and Borodin Quartets, but also as a composer and conductor, performing all three roles with the ensembles such as the San Diego Symphony and the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Known as a leading exponent of period instrument performance practice, Charles Neidich was one of the first soloists to improvise cadenzas and ornament classical concertos and has been active restoring original versions of works and bringing them before the public, including those of Mozart, Weber, Copland, and Schumann.

Also an ardent exponent of new music, Mr. Neidich has expanded the technical possibilities of the clarinet and has championed works especially of Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Ralph Shapey, Donald Martino, Joan Tower, Helmut Lachenmann, and Edison Denisov.  His three woodwind quintets, "Sound and Fury" for woodwind quintet and taped English Horn written in the memory of Ronald Roseman, “La Mano Sinistra” for woodwind quintet with off-stage flutist,  and just last year his most recent quintet, ”And then there were” have been premiered at the Juilliard School by the New York Woodwind Quintet of which he has been member since 1985. 

Mr. Neidich's recordings are available on the Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion, Bridge, Chandos and Cobra labels. This past Fall he released a recording on the Bremen Radio Recordings Label as soloist and conductor with the noted period instrument ensemble from Bratislava, Solamente Naturali including his reconstruction of the Mozart Basset Clarinet Concerto, the Družecký concerto for 3 basset horns, and his reconstruction of Mozart’s Adagio in F K. 580a for clarinet and 3 basset horns.

In demand at summer festivals and master classes, Charles Neidich has been long time participant at the Marlboro, Sarasota, Crusell, and Seoul Spring Festivals, as well as the Weimar and Apeldoorn Master Courses. With his wife, Ayako Oshima, he organizes the Kita Karuizawa Music Festival in Japan. Very active in education, Mr. Neidich is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College where he conducts their Chamber Orchestra. In 2004, at Juilliard, he was awarded the William Schumann Award.

You'll want to visit his web site, charlesneidich.com/ .