Charles Neidich

Charles Neidich, clarinetist, is active not only as a soloist and collaborator in chamber music programs, performing with leading ensembles including the St. Louis, Minneapolis, MDR , Moscow State Symphonies, and the Juilliard, 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. He 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. 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 own work, Sound and Fury for woodwind quintet and taped English Horn written in the memory of Ronald Roseman, was premiered by the New York Woodwind Quintet. Mr. Neidich's recordings are available on the Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion, Bridge, and Cobra labels. In addition to the New York Woodwind Quintet, Mr. Neidich is a member of Mozzafiato, the noted period ensemble. He currently is a member of the faculties of Juilliard, the Manhattan School, the Mannes College of Music, and is Visiting Professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY.