News for and about the Internet2 community

["Jill B Gemmill" <>]

Title: PR

  The Department of Music, University of Alabama at Birmingham,  will host internationally acclaimed clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman as a part of the second annual Southern Appalachian
Clarinet Retreat, February 20-22, 2004.  Other guest artists and performers
will be Dr. Lori Neprud-Ardovino, University of Montevallo, Dr. Diane
Barger, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Michael Sullivan, Northern Arizona
University and UAB Assistant Professor and retreat organizer, Dr. Denise
Schmidt.  Dale Reynolds will accompany Mr. Stoltzman during his
lecture/performance discussing the Rautavaaria concerto which was written
especially for him.  Mr. Stoltzman will appear as a part of the Jemison
Visiting Scholar series.

         A live webcast of Mr. Stoltzman's masterclass will air LIVE on
Saturday, February 21th beginning at 7:30 p.m. CST.  For best viewing of this
live event you should have a recent edition of Internet Explorer,
RealPlayer, and a high speed internet connection.  Log onto the UAB
Department of Music website at www.music.uab.edu <http://www.music.uab.edu/>
and click on the Stoltzman Live Webcast link. We hope you enjoy this very
special event from the UAB Department of Music.

        The weekend will include recitals, master classes, chamber music
performances, and lectures on a myriad of subjects relating to the clarinet.
For more information call 205-934-7376.


Stoltzman's Biography:

Richard Stoltzman's virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism
have made him one of today's most sought-after concert artists. As soloist
with more than a hundred orchestras, as a captivating recitalist and chamber
music performer, as an innovative jazz artist, and as a prolific recording
artist, two-time Grammy Award winner Stoltzman has defied categorization,
dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres.
Stoltzman graduated from Ohio State University with a double major in music
and mathematics. He earned his 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. As a ten-year participant in
the Marlboro Music Festival, Stoltzman gained extensive chamber music
experience, and subsequently became a founding member of the noted ensemble
TASHI, which made its debut 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 that no one could have predicted. He gave the first clarinet
recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and
in 1986, he became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher
Prize. His talents as a jazz performer as well as a classical artist have
been heard far beyond his annual tours. He has performed or recorded with
such jazz and pop greats as Gary Burton, the Canadian Brass, Chick Corea,
Judy Collins, Eddie Gomez, Keith Jarrett, the King's Singers, George
Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Mel Tormé, and Spyro Gyra founder Jeremy Wall. His
commitment to new music has resulted in the commissioning and premiere of
numerous new works for the clarinet, including "Landscapes with Blues" by
Stephen Hartke (2001), and a new concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara which
premiered in October 2002 with conductor Leonard Slatkin and the National
Symphony at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.

Richard Stoltzman has a discography numbering over 50 releases on BMG/RCA,
SONY Classical, MMC, BIS, Albany and other labels, including a
Grammy-winning recording of Brahms Sonatas with Richard Goode. Stoltzman's
recent releases include "Amber Waves", a CD of American works, and the Trios
of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, which won
Stoltzman his second Grammy Award. Three recent releases include Nielsen,
Prokofiev and Lutoslawski with the Warsaw Philharmonic conducted by Lawrence
Leighton Smith (BMG/RCA), the Skrowaczewski Concerto with the Saarbrucken
Radio Orchestra, conducted by the composer (Albany) and three new clarinet
concertos with the Seattle Symphony and Gerard Schwarz (MMC). Premiere
recordings of Hartke's "Landscapes with Blues" and Rautavaara's Clarinet
Concerto are forthcoming on Naxos and Ondine respectively during the 2003-04
season.

Over the years, Stoltzman has received numerous requests for the music to
the enchanting arrangements and original works that can be heard on his
recordings and in live performance. Amateur and professional clarinetists
alike are now in luck as they can finally enjoy this music published in two
appealing volumes entitled "ARIA," which features the music from the BMG
recording of the same name, and "The Richard Stoltzman Songbook," a
collection of jazz and classics, both published by Carl Fischer.
The current season starts as Stoltzman delights summer audiences with
Mozart, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and at New York's
Mostly Mozart Festival, marking Stoltzman's 25th appearance at the Lincoln
Center festival. 2003-04 celebrations of Einojuhani Rautavaara's 75th
birthday will include numerous performances by Stoltzman of his glorious new
clarinet concerto throughout the US, Germany and Italy. Additional
orchestral appearances span the US, Canada, Denmark and Germany. Brahms
celebrations with the renowned clarinetist include performances with the
Takacs, American and Borromeo String Quartets in Berkeley (CA), New York and
Boston respectively. The Stoltzman family, recently called "New England's
First Family of Classical Music" by WGBH radio in Boston, will appear at the
Kennedy Center this season in a program of jazz and classics.
In addition to Rautavaara concerto premiere performances in Washington DC,
New York, Toronto, London and Helsinki, Stoltzman's orchestral concerts in
2002-03 took him around the world with repertoire that ranged from Mozart
and Weber to Copland, Bernstein, Takemistu, Hartke and McKinley. Other
highlights included a joint recital tour with longtime friend, pianist
Emanuel Ax, a twelve-city tour with the American String Quartet, a return to
San Francisco Performances with Lukas Foss, celebrating the
pianist/composer's 80th year, a Benny Goodman tribute with George Mason
University's Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, and an extended winter holiday
tour of Japan.

Throughout the season, Stoltzman will also continue his commitment as an
active Board Member of Young Audiences to help bring music to children of
all ages.

Richard Stoltzman, also a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef, is the father of
two children, Margaret Anne and Peter John with whom he shares a passion for
the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Stoltzman and his wife Lucy reside in
Massachusetts.