Acclaimed Clarinetist at Illinois State March 21 for Master Class and Recital

Clarinetist Charles Neidich, described as one of today's most mesmerizing musicians, will present a guest recital at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 21, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall at Illinois State University.    Neidich, a faculty member at The Juilliard School and a regular soloist and collaborator nationally and internationally, also will give a master class from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets to the recital are $6 for the public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens and are available at the CPA box office from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and before the recital.

Neidich's recital, in which pianist Momoko Gresham will accompany him, will include music by Brahms, Faure, Poulenc, Cater, Saint-Saens and his own compositions.

Last spring, Neidich was the recipient of the William Schuman Award given by the Juilliard School for outstanding performance and scholarship.  He 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 he has held visiting positions at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, the Yale School of Music and Michigan State University.

Neidich began studying clarinet with his father at the age of 7, after having started piano lessons with his mother.  Clarinet gradually won out and he went at the age of 17 to continue studying with the noted clarinet teacher, Leon Russianoff.  After four years at Yale University, where he majored in Anthropology, Neidich went to the Moscow State Conservatory as the first recipient of a Fulbright grant to study both clarinet and piano in the Soviet Union.

Known as a leading exponent of period instrument performance practice (he is the founder of the noted period instrument wind ensemble, Mozzafiato), 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.  Neidich has been influential in restoring original versions of works and bringing them before the public.

Neidich 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.         

His recordings are available on the Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Hyperion and Bridge labels.