THE 20TH CENTURY
CLARINET CONCERTO
BAVICCHI, HINDEMITH & WOLFF

GARY DRANCH clarinet

ORQUESTRA DE CAMERA DA ULBRA
Tiago Flores

ORQUESTA FILARMONICA DE BUENOS AIRES
Arkady Leytush

$14.95  ~  MS1180

"Daniel Wolf...has written a light and folksy concerto of much charm..."   -  American Record Guide ~ May / June 2007

"...well-played...the Ulbra Chamber Orchestra and Buenos Aires Philharmonic play proficiently"   -  Turok's Choice ~ April 2007

"Dranch performs [the Wolff] beautifully with an ease and effortless quality that matches the style of the work exquisitely. The string ensemble is clear, clean and crisp throughout. Dranch's sound is amazingly dark and without edge even in the altissimo. Dranch's perfect intonation and control in the slow sections [in the Bavicchi] is notable and the performance by soloist and orchestra alike is admirable...[Hindemith's Concerto] is a welcome conclusion to this CD...Dranch is highly musical throughout...He seems keenly aware of the neoclassical influence, and injects them in his interpretation. Dranch is precise and reserved...The orchestra is immaculately clean throughout this work. I recommend this recording as a worthy addition to the contemporary clarinetist's audio library....there is something for everyone here, and then some. Gary Dranch is supremely adept at handling the technical and musical challenges that arise in these works."   -  The Clarinet, March 2007

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Clarinetist Gary Dranch, who holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a well-known clarinetist specializing in contemporary music. His educational background was formed at the Eastman School of Music as a student of Stanley Hasty, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance. He subsequently attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he obtained his Masters of Music degree in Performance. A native New Yorker, Dranch currently performs with the Greenwich Village Orchestra and the American Chamber Opera Orchestra. He is a frequent recitalist, having performed in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, Merkin Hall (where he gave his New York debut recital in 1990), Donnell Library, ‘The Atrium’ at CitiCorp Center, and Loeb Center at New York University.  Dr. Dranch has appeared as soloist several times with orchestras in New York, such as the Bronx Symphony, Centre Symphony, Broadway Bach Ensemble, and New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble as well as in Europe and South America. In Brazil, he has appeared as soloist on several occasions with the Sao Pedro Chamber Orchestra, OSPA, and Chamber Orchestra of ULBRA. Dranch has dedicated much of his career to expanding the clarinet repertoire, and has commissioned or had works written for him by such composers as Elliott Schwartz, Hank Johnson and John Bavicchi. Dr. Dranch performed the Wolff Concerto on a CD entitled "The Brazilian Concerto" which was nominated for a Grammy in the category, Best Soloist with Orchestral Accompaniment in 2001. That same year, Dr. Dranch premiered a clarinet concerto by composer Craig Morris with the Bronx Symphony. In August 2002, he was a clinician and soloist at the Fifth International Music Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he performed the clarinet concertos of Daniel Wolff and Craig Morris with the Festival Orchestra. He was also a jurist for the international competition for instrumentalists and chamber groups, and presented clarinet master classes. In April 2003, Dr. Dranch appeared as soloist with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra with guest conductor Arkady Leytush in a performance of the Hindemith Clarinet Concerto at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr. Dranch is a clarinet coach and performer at AMEROPA, a summer chamber music festival in Prague.