Hello, and welcome back to my site!

Damian — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 20:45:05 +0000

Before the frenzy of the season begins, I want to take a moment and write a little bit about all the wonderful things that are happening in my life right now. This summer has been filled with travel and excitement: I spent two weeks performing Eb clarinet with the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra… on 24 hours notice! My plane ride over to Wyoming was very busy, listening to the music I was about to perform (Mahler Das Lied, Bernstein West Side Story and Copland Symphony no. 3), marking my parts and consulting the respective scores. Thank goodness for exit row seats with a little extra room to fit all this material!

The Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra is a very special and impressive ensemble made up of some of the best orchestral players from around the globe. I was very honored to join the clarinet section which included players from the Pittsburgh, Dallas, Detroit and San Antonio Orchestras. The setting is also very inspiring – rehearsals and performances are interspersed with hikes in the beautiful Grand Teton National Park and surrounding areas. This time around I got to hike around many lakes: Jenny, Phelps, Taggart and Two Ocean, as well a (higher) altitude hike which involved taking an aerial tram ride to the top of Rendezvous Mountain and hiking down back to Teton Village.

There was not much free time upon returning to Texas, as my husband Andrés and I were coordinating moves to Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Andrés has been appointed Music Director of the Signature Symphony in Tulsa and Assistant Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which means we will have three bases in three different states.

The 2015-16 season will be filled with travel, not only to and from these three wonderful cities, but also to other places where Andrés and I will work on different projects. This fall Andrés will make his subscription debut with the Chicago Sinfonietta at Chicago’s Symphony Center. In November he returns to conduct the Fort Worth Symphony, and a few weeks later he will be back in Texas to conduct the Corpus Christi Symphony. We will celebrate the holidays together as Andrés conducts a festive program in Tulsa in December. I am preparing for a recital in Texas Hill Country for Blanco Performing Arts in February, as well as a solo engagement with the Signature Symphony with Andrés conducting. It is always a LOT of fun when we work on a project together, and I am very much looking forward to collaborating with him and the talented musicians in the orchestra. In March, Andrés will make his subscription debut with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra.

This season also makes my tenth as principal clarinetist with the Fort Worth Symphony. Our Music Director, Miguel Harth-Bedoya has put together a very exciting season with wonderful guest artists such as Joshua Bell, Midori, Louis Lortie and Helence Mercier, Doc Severinsen and Jason Alexander among others. We will also continue our collaboration with Cliburn Gold Medalist and FWSO Artistic Partner Vadym Kholodenko, with whom we are recording the Prokofiev Piano Concerti for the Harmonia Mundi label. In May, the FWSO is going on tour to Spain. The multi-city tour will include concerts at major halls in Madrid, Oviedo, Alicante, Zaragoza and San Sebastian, as well as a sixth city to be announced.

I will do my best to keep my site updated with the latest concert information. Until then, enjoy the rest of the summer, and thank you for visiting my site!

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Donald Montanaro Tribute

Damian — Fri, 30 May 2014 15:21:29 +0000

Earlier this spring Donald Montanaro announced his retirement from the Curtis Institute of Music after more than 30 years on Faculty. A tribute concert was held on March 16 to celebrate his distinguished career, which has inspired generations of clarinetists, many of whom perform around the world.

The event was an emotional experience for all who gathered that afternoon to pay tribute to their teacher, colleague and friend. Clarinetists flew in from Canada, China, Mexico, Korea, and from several U.S. cities to take part in the celebration.

I was honored to attend and perform at the event, and grateful for the opportunity to celebrate a great teacher and mentor. I studied with Don at Curtis from 1998-2002, and have continued to learn from him ever since!

As a teacher Don is meticulous, persistent, patient, articulate, demanding and inspiring, as well as extremely generous with his time and knowledge. Through his teaching, Don instills in his students a love for the bel canto style of playing and continues a great musical tradition established by his own teachers, Daniel Bonade, Ralph McLane and Marcel Tabuteau.

As a performer he is elegant, refined, engaging. The beauty of his tone and depth of musicality are absolutely breathtaking. Every time I hear his performances, every time I play for him, every time I hear him speak, I learn something new.

It was incredible to hear his current and former students perform, and witness first hand Don’s teaching reflected in each clarinetist. Even though every player sounded different, each with his/her own personality shining through, one could still clearly hear the influence of Don’s concepts in all performances.

For this occasion, I chose to perform Guastavino’s Tonada y Cueca, a tribute to Don from my homeland, Argentina, a country Don has visited countless times with Margarita, his lovely wife.

Below are a few pictures of the event. Enjoy!

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