artist profiles
david shifrin clarinet
One of only two wind players to have been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, clarinetist David Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has performed with numerous major orchestras, including the Seattle, Houston, Detroit, and Denver symphonies, the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, and orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Taiwan. In addition, he has served as principal clarinetist with the American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski) and the Cleveland Orchestra, among several others. Mr. Shifrin has appeared in critically acclaimed recitals around the world, including at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Library of Congress, and throughout Germany. His recordings (on Delos, DGG, Angel/EMI, Arabesque, BMG, SONY, and CRI) continue to garner praise as well as awards, and he has received three Grammy nominations. Mr. Shifrin continues to broaden the repertoire for clarinet and orchestra by championing the works of 20th- and 21st-century American composers including, among others, John Adams, Joan Tower, John Corigliano, Bright Sheng, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1989, Mr. Shifrin served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004. He is also the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. David Shifrin has been a professor of music at the Yale School of Music since 1987. He has also served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. He is the artistic director of the Chamber Music Society at Yale and the Yale in New York concert series.