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Hailed by the New Yorker as "a
master of his instrument and beyond a clarinetist”
Charles Neidich has been described as one of the most
mesmerizing musicians performing before the public today.
He regularly appears as soloist and as collaborator in
chamber music programs with leading ensembles including
the Saint Louis Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, Orpheus
Chamber Orchestra, I Musici di Montreal, Tafelmusik,
Handel/Haydn Society, Royal Philharmonic, Deutsches
Philharmonic, MDR Symphony, Yomiuri Symphony, National
Symphony of Taiwan, and the Juilliard, Guarneri,
Brentano, American, Mendelssohn, Carmina, Colorado, and
Cavani String Quartets. Mr. Neidich has performed
throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, and is a
sought after participant at many summer festivals such
as the Marlboro and Sarasota festivals in |
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the USA, the Orford and Domaines
Forget festivals in Canada, BBC Proms in England,
Festival Consonances and Pontivy in France, Corsi
Internazionali di Perfezionamento in Italy, Kuhmo,
Crusell Week, Turku, and Korsholm festivals in Finland,
the Apeldoorn Festival in Holland, Music from Moritzburg
in Germany, the Kirishima and Lilia summer festivals in
Japan, and the Beijing Festival in China.
When Charles Neidich began studying clarinet with his
father, Irving Neidich at the age of 7, he had already
started piano lessons with his mother, Litsa Gania
Neidich. He continued studying both instruments, but the
clarinet gradually won out, and he went at the age of 17
to continue studying with the noted clarinet teacher,
Leon Russianoff. After 4 years at Yale University where
he majored in Anthropology, Charles Neidich went to the
Moscow State Conservatory as the first recipient of a
Fulbright grant to study in the Soviet Union. He studied
in Moscow for 3 years as a student of the clarinetist,
Boris Dikov, and the pianist, Kirill Vinogradov.
Known as a leading exponent of period instrument
performance practice (he is the founder of the noted
period instrument wind ensemble, “Mozzafiato”) Charles
Neidich was one of the first soloists to improvise
cadenzas and ornament classical concertos. He has
performed his restoration of the Mozart Concerto
throughout the world both on modern and period
instruments. 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 previously mentioned Mozart Concerto,
Concerti of Weber and Copland, the Soireest cke of
Robert Schumann and the Andante and Allegro of Ernest
Chausson. Mr. Neidich is also an ardent exponent of new
music and has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott
Carter, Edison Denisov, Helmut Lachenmann, William
Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, Katia Tchemberdji,
Vasilii Lobanov and others. He has championed John
Corigliano's Concerto, performing it throughout the
United States notably with the Syracuse and Jacksonville
Symphonies in performances many have called definitive.
His recordings are available on the sony Classical, Sony
Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion,
and Bridge labels. For Aaron Copland's centennial, he
released the world premiere recording of his
reconstruction of the original version of Copland's
Clarinet Concerto with “I Musici di Montreal” for the
Chandos label.
Mr. Neidich has turned his attention in a serious way to
conducting, and has appeared with the Avanti chamber
Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki, at the Båstad
Festival in Sweden, the Kirishima Festival in Japan,
with the New World and the San Diego Symphonies (in a
triple role of conductor, soloist, and composer), and in
Bulgaria with the Plovdiv State Philharmonic. Very
active in education, Charles Neidich is on the faculties
of the Juilliard School, Queens College of the City
University of New York, the Manhattan School, and the
Mannes College of Music, and has held visiting positions
at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, the Yale School of
Music, and Michigan State University. He is in demand
for master classes around the world and for innovative
lecture concerts he has devised such as "Old is New: how
playing old music on period instruments is like playing
new music on modern instruments," and "Craft and Drama:
how understanding how Brahms composed makes for a more
compelling performance."
With his wife, Ayako Oshima, he has published a book on
the basics of clarinet technique for the Japanese
publisher, TOA Ongaku inc. Last Spring, Charles Neidich
was the recipient of the William Schuman Award given by
the Juilliard School for outstanding performance and
scholarship.
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