David Singer

The New York Times wrote about David Singer, “To describe his playing would be to enumerate a catalogue of virtues.” His career as one of the most highly respected clarinetists in the U.S. has been established through performances and recordings as  principal clarinetist of the Grammy Award winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, frequent guest appearances with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, two separate performances at the White House for Presidents Carter and Clinton, participation at the Marlboro, Spoleto and Edinburgh Music Festivals and through chamber music performances and recordings with some of the greatest musicians of our time including Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Serkin, Yo Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Orion, and Shanghai String Quartets. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings including two Grammy Award winners.

Robert Aldridge, Grammy Award winner in 2012, wrote Concerto For Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra for Mr. Singer and performances of that work with both Orpheus and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra resulted in rave reviews: “teeming with energy”, “rowdy, ethnic and fun” (Los Angeles Times). Naxos and American Classics released Singer’s recording of the Aldridge and Copland Clarinet Concerti and from England, Gramophone Magazine wrote “…Singer’s Copland performance is one of the finest accounts around. His playing is exceptional…sensitive and expressive…technically brilliant.”

Winner of the international Naumberg Competition for chamber music in New York, David Singer, as a member of the Aulos Wind Quintet commissioned John Harbison to write his now famous “Wind Quintet”, a piece which has become one of the most important works in the repertoire of the woodwind quintet. Mr. Singer also participated in the premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s quartet, “Fortune” in Bonn, Germany, with the composer as pianist.

David Singer was a judge with Grammy Award winner John Corigliano for the Corigliano Clarinet Competition at the Juilliard School as well as one of three judges for the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II International Competition.