Bloom, J. Lawrie

He is a clarinettist born in Buffalo, New York who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and Princeton, New Jersey. His mother was an opera singer with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He started out by learning the piano when he was four years old before concentrating on the clarinet when he was nine. He studied at the Columbus Boychoir School where he sang and played clarinet, and participated on tours of North America and Japan. He went on to earn his music degrees at Temple University and Arizona State University.

He went on to become Assistant Principal Clarinettist and Bass Clarinettist with the Phoenix Symphony and in 1976 became a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also played with the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony.

In 1980 he was appointed Clarinet and Solo Bass Clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Sir Georg Solti. With the CSO he has toured nationally and internationally and performed on many recordings. In February 2020 he was the soloist for the world premiere of “Ophelia’s Tears” Concertante Elegy by Nicolas Bacri commissioned for him by the CSO. He retired at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

As a chamber musician he performed at a live recital for the Australian Broadcast Company as well as in concerts aired by WFMT in Chicago. He has collaborated with members of the Orion String Quartet, the Ridge String Quartet and Vermeer String Quartet as well as with the Chester String Quartet, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chicago Symphony String Quartet and the Mendelssohn String Quartet. He also toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is a co-founder of the Civitas Ensemble.

He has played at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium and International Clarinet Association conferences as a featured performer and has participated at several music festivals. He is the Artistic Co-Director at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival.

Recording he has performed on include his own Monologues along with The Heart Revived by Lawrence Axelrod, Mozart: Music for Basset Horns by Members of the Chicago Symphony Winds, Corigliano: Symphony No. 1, Wagner: Overtures and Preludes, Arnold Schonberg: Verklarte Nacht Op. 4/Piano Pieces Op. 11 & 19/Five Orchestral Pieces Op. 16, Carter/Berio/Takemisu: Partita/Continuo/Vision, Brahms: Violin Concerto/Sonata No. 3 and the soundtrack of Lincoln by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Alla Zingarese by the Civitas Ensemble/ Pavel Sporcl’s Gipsy Way Ensemble, Just Havin’ Some Fun by Bobby Lewis, Christmas Celebration, Christmas Extraordinaire and Yellowstone: the Music of Nature by Mannheim Steamroller, The Covenant; Rituals; Incantations by Ralph Shapey and Richard Wernick: Concerto for Cello and Ten Players; Piano Trio No. 1; Sextet.

In the field of musical education he has given master classes nationally and internationally and is a faculty member at Northwestern University where he is a senior lecturer in clarinet.

Sources:

Bloom, J. Lawrie

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