Charles Neidich is an American classical clarinetist,
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
, and conductor.
A native New Yorker of
Russian JewishRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
descent, Charles Neidich began his
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
studies with his father, Irving Neidich, at the age of eight, and continued them with the renowned teacher Leon Russianoff and, later in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
, with Boris Dikov. His reputation has grown steadily since his 1974 New York recital début while still a student at
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
.
Charles Neidich is an American classical clarinetist,
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
, and conductor.
Early career
A native New Yorker of
Russian JewishRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
descent, Charles Neidich began his
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
studies with his father, Irving Neidich, at the age of eight, and continued them with the renowned teacher Leon Russianoff and, later in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
, with Boris Dikov. His reputation has grown steadily since his 1974 New York recital début while still a student at
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
. A series of prizes helped launch his early career: the Silver Medal in the 1979
Geneva International Music CompetitionThe Geneva International Music Competition is an annual music competition held in Geneva founded in 1939 for a wide variety of instruments, voice, conducting, and small ensemble performance.-See also:...
, Second Prize in the 1982 Munich International Competition and one of three Grand Prizes in the 1984 Accanthes International Competition in Paris. In 1985, he won the first major clarinet competition in the United States, the
Walter W. Naumburg CompetitionThe Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...
, which catapulted him into prominence as a soloist.
Accomplishments
Mr. Neidich has been influential in restoring original versions of works and bringing them before the public. A list of the clarinet classics he has restored to their original form includes works as diverse as the
Mozart ConcertoMozart's Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast-slow-fast form:# Allegro# Adagio# Rondo: Allegro...
, Concerti of Weber and Copland, the
Soireestücke of
Robert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic...
, and the
Andante and Allegro of
Ernest ChaussonAmédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
. Mr. Neidich is also an ardent exponent of new music and has premiered works by
Milton BabbittMilton Byron Babbitt is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
,
Elliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
,
Edison DenisovEdison Vasilievich Denisov was a Russian composer of so called "Underground" — "Anti-Collectivist", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division in the Soviet music.-Biography:...
,
Helmut LachenmannHelmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of the Second World War started singing in his local church choir. Showing an early aptitude for music, he was already composing in his teens...
,
William SchumanWilliam Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in the Bronx in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft...
,
Ralph ShapeyRalph Shapey was an American composer and conductor. He is well-known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he founded and directed the Contemporary Chamber Players...
,
Joan TowerJoan Tower is a contemporary American composer, pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...
, Katia Tchemberdji, Vasilii Lobanov and others. He has championed
John CoriglianoJohn Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
's Concerto, performing it throughout the United States notably with the
SyracuseThe Syracuse Symphony Orchestra is a 79 member orchestra located in Syracuse, NY. It was founded in 1961 as a community orchestra by a grant from the Gifford Foundation...
and
Jacksonville SymphoniesThe Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Jacksonville, Florida. Widely recognized for its high artistic quality, the JSO ranks among the nation’s top 30 to 40 orchestras in terms of number of performances and population served...
in performances. Charles Neidich has made numerous recordings on both modern and historical instruments, both as soloist and with his period-instrument wind ensemble Mozzafiato.
Mr. Neidich has turned his attention to conducting, and has appeared with the Avanti chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki, the Kirishima Festival in Japan, with the New World and the
San Diego SymphonyThe San Diego Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in San Diego, California. On 6 December 1910, it gave its first concert as the San Diego Civic Orchestra.Currently, the Symphony performs over 100 concerts each season...
(in a triple role of conductor, soloist, and composer), and in Bulgaria with the
PlovdivPlovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, with a population of 380,312. Known in ancient times as Philippoupolis, it is the administrative center of Plovdiv Province in southern Bulgaria and three municipalities and Bulgaria's Yuzhen tsentralen planning region , as well as the...
State Philharmonic.
From 1985 to 1989 he was professor of clarinet at the
Eastman School of MusicThe Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York, United States. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
, and is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music, the
Manhattan School of MusicThe Manhattan School of Music is one of the world's leading music conservatories located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
, Mannes College The New School for Music, and
CUNY Queens CollegeQueens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York.-History and enrollment:...
.
External links