🎵Some clarinet inspiration and tools for you

CLARINET MENTORS NEWSLETTER - June 11, 2020

In this issue:

• Hello From Michelle - Zooming ahead on clarinet during covid and corona crisis
• Free Training - Check out these video resources - interviews with some great clarinetists - some recorded, some being broadcast in the next 2 weeks
• Michelle Recommends - Clarinet Connections - summary of resources for you
• Further Clarinet Trainings - Did you know that Michelle offers several detailed courses to help you play clarinet more easily? Many of them have a systematic 30-Day Workout plan for you to notice clear improvement in a month
• Clarinet Mentors App - Do you have any Clarinet Mentors courses? Now you can easily watch them on your mobile devices.

Hello From Michelle!

I'm sending a warm greeting to all clarinetists in the Clarinet Mentors Community. I have many resources in today's newsletter designed for clarinetists of all levels. This has been a crazy few months for all of us as musicians around the world. Having every concert and rehearsal cancelled for months was unexpected. I miss performing with my colleagues. I am sure that you are missing any groups that you play with. Having a family suddenly doing home schooling, and everyone working over Zoom is new. Life has been crazy. Fortunately, so far there has not been much illness in my community, but my heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by this.

Many of you participated in Clarinet Connections 2020, which is the online conference that I helped to host in early May, that featured a series of incredible clarinetists freely sharing their knowledge and resources with all of us. I have never received so many thanks from people as I did for this event. I think the variety of clarinet content really provides something for everyone. I have a summary of the events below so that you can find the sessions that appeal to you. You can still sign up at no charge and enjoy these educational and entertaining sessions.

I have been working with three groups of clarinetists who signed up for our intense 3-Month Clarinet Transformation. These are dedicated small groups of clarinetists who meet with me for group masterclasses once a week, as well as go through some of the extensive online Clarinet Mentors courses. There is synergy in working together, and after about 8 weeks, the results that people are getting are amazing. It is so inspiring to me that I may offer this program again. If you might be interested, send me a note and I'll make sure that you get an invitation to these space-limited sessions.

Michelle

FREE TRAINING

Live interviews with clarinet experts

Following the Clarinet Connections 2020 conference in early May (details below) I am now seeing many other great clarinet expert video series that you will find interesting. Many of these are on Facebook, but are often cross-posted on Youtube. Here are the ones that have caught my eye so far:

At Home With Hawkins - Clarinetist Richard Hawkins is a superb clarinetist, teacher and mouthpiece designer. He has a series interviewing several great clarinetists including David Shifrin, Corrado Giufreddi, Laura Arden, and Ben Lulich. You can find these videos on the Backun Musical Services Facebook and Youtube channels. This article gives a great summary of some of these: https://clevelandclassical.com/at-home-with-hawkins-conversations-on-music-and-clarinet/

The Clarineat Podcast Master Series - More great interviews with Richard Hawkins, hosted by Sean Perrin. These sessions include interviews with Anthony McGill, Stephen Williamson and Boris Allakhverdyan. You can find these videos on the Clarineat Podcast Facebook and Youtube pages.

Andrew Simon's Licorice Talk - Andrew Simon has some great interviews on his Facebook page, including interviews with Frank Cohen, Charlie Neidich, Nicholas Baldeyrou, an articulation workshop, and in a few days he will interview Michele Zukovsky.

If you know of any other resources like this, please share them with me.

Clarinet Connections 2020 - You can still join in!

The Clarinet Connections 2020 conference was a huge hit. There are so many resources available for clarinetists both less experienced and more, professional and amateur, classical, klezmer, avant-garde, the online world of clarinet and more. You can join at www.ClarinetConnections.com at now charge. Here is a summary of the workshops so that you can choose the ones that most interest you.

Clarinet Connections 2020 Summary of Events

David Shifrin - Back to the Basics - David is one of the greatest teachers and performers of the clarinet today. He shares how he, and his students at the Yale University School of Music began focusing on important clarinet basic skills and repertoire once all classes went online. He talks about working on Rose Etudes and shares some very helpful exercises that clarinetists of all levels can use to improve tone and phrasing. Everyone can learn from this session.

Ashley Smith - Practicing and Performing the Avant-garde - Ashley has a passion for performing avant-garde music in a way that truly connects with audiences. His demonstrations are dazzling, and he shows clarinetists how they can begin to try some extended technics on the clarinet. 

Seunghee Lee - You Are the Company - Tips and tools to build your digital platform - Seunghee, or Sunny, Lee is an accomplished performer and recording artist. She shares many valuable pointers on how people can easily create beautiful online webpages, social media posts, how she self-publishes sheet music and has created her own recording label and more. This is helpful to anyone who wants to create a greater reach with their music.

David Krakauer - The Klezmer Clarinetist - David is not only one of the leading klezmer clarinetists in the world, he is an accomplished classical and jazz clarinetist. He shares his musical journey with us, and presents some klezmer technics that you can try on your clarinet.

Jenny Maclay - Blogging, Boot Camps, and Building a Music Career - “Jenny Clarinet” has a huge online following with her very popular clarinet blog (which is short for web-log, meaning an online “diary” of interesting topics). She shares advice for other musicians on building a business online, and also invites clarinetists into her popular online clarinet bootcamps.

Michael Lowenstern - The Making of the Multi-Clarinet Multi-Track Videos (and more) - Michael is the start of one of the most popular clarinet Youtube channels (Earspasm) which has a wealth of clarinet fun and education. In his Clarinet Connections workshop, he shares how he creates the multi-track videos of himself playing ensembles with himself. This will help anyone who wants to create ensemble videos where participants are recording in different locations.

Michelle Anderson - Clarinet Fundamentals - Play Along Workshop - Michelle Anderson, founder of Clarinet Mentors, presents some basic trainings to help less experienced clarinetists improve their tone, high notes, and generally comfort navigating the challenges of clarinet. These are play-along exercises.

Morrie Backun - Everything that you wanted to know about the clarinet and were afraid to ask…Morrie is the founder of Backun Musical Services, and an expert clarinet builder and repair person. He shares several valuable clarinet maintenance pointers and things people can do to repair their instruments if they are not able to take it to a repair shop in person.

Amicitia Duo (Diane Barger and Denise Gainey) - These two stellar performers and teachers share about recording their new CD (Bb/Eb/clarinets and piano), as well as many thoughts on music, friendship and clarinet pointers.

Sean Perrin - The Clarineat Podcast - Sean is an accomplished performer and teacher, and also hosts the Clarineat Podcast which is a wealth of valuable clarinet information the you can listen to on your phones, tablets and computers. He shares his experiences interviewing clarinet experts from all over the world.

David Griffiths and Svetlana Bogosavljevic - Trios clarinet cello piano - As 2/3 of the Ensemble Liaison, clarinetist David and his cellist wife Svetlana share many stories of their performances, commissions, very original collaborative concert programming and more. 

Deborah Andrus - Clarinet Comeback - a Play-Along Class - Professional clarinetist and teacher Dr. Deborah Andrus suffered a traumatic brain injury a year ago, and is now coming back to the clarinet after a long absence. Her inspirational story garnered more email and comments than any other in Clarinet Connections. She shares her story, and also the tools that she is using to regain her skills. As a superb teacher, she shares many exercises that clarinetists of all levels can apply to their own learning and debuts her own ebook full of valuable clarinet content.

Jose Franch-Ballester, Oscar Navarro and Jonathan Girard - Clarinetist, Composer and Conductor - This trio of amazing artists discusses the process of writing a very innovative new clarinet concerto from conception to the debut performance with the UBC Orchestra. The concert was a multi-media performance with custom projected images, costumes, narration, clarinet virtuosity and even someone playing a rubber ducky. A fascinating look inside a very engaging concert production.

You can register at www.ClarinetConnections.com, or login here if you have already signed up: https://www.clarinetmastery.com/products/clarinet-connections-2020.

FURTHER CLARINET TRAININGS

Did you know that Michelle Anderson of Clarinet Mentors has created several step-by-step courses to help you play the clarinet better? Do you want to improve your tone, or move your fingers faster, or play high notes better? Check out all of the courses (which all have free samples for you to learn from) by clicking the button below:

Further Clarinet Trainings And Samples

If a friend forwarded this to you, I hope you'll become part of my clarinet community! Feel free to email if you have questions, comments or things you would like to see in future newsletters. I hope that you enjoy great music with your clarinet playing this week.

Michelle Anderson, Clarinet Mentors
P.S. To sign-up for the free e-newsletter, here's the link: https://www.clarinetmastery.com/pl/11145