He was a French horn player and conductor born in Chattanooga, Tennessee whose father was president of the Chattanooga Opera Association. He began by playing trumpet when he was 11 years old but after two years, when he was 13, he decided to concentrate on the horn. He studied at Chattanooga High School before taking further studies at Carnegie Mellon University where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962.
He first joined Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of Air and became Principal Horn with the Kansas Philharmonic. In 1966 he became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after being appointed by the music director Jean Martinon. During his career with the CSO he worked with music directors and guest conductors that included Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink Riccardo Muti and Sir Georg Solti and performed on many national and international tours. He retired from the orchestra in 2013.
As a soloist he and the CSO premiered a Concerto for Horn and Orchestra written for him by John Williams in 2003. He was also a featured soloist on many recordings that include Grammy winning CDs of Mozart an Beethoven quintets with members of the CSO and Berlin Philharmonic, Richard Strauss’ First Horn Concerto with the CSO and The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli with brass ensembles from the Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the CSO. He also played on the Grammy nominated CD of Mozart’s Horn Concertos with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra.
The recordings he featured on include his Music for French Horn & Piano and Music for French Horn along with Mozart on Michigan Avenue with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings/Les Illuminations, Mozart/Haydn: Horn Concerto No. 3/Bassoon Concerto/Oboe Concerto/Trumpet Concerto, Richard Strauss: Wind Concertos with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Haydn: Horn Concertos, Mozart: Horn Concertos Nos. 1-4 (K,414, 417, 447 & 495)/Rondo K.371/Fragment K.484a and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Leopold Mozart: The Four Horn Concertos/Concert Rondeau in E-flat major with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Budapest.
As a chamber musician he worked with many ensembles including the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and during the summer participated at the Affinis, Marrowstone, Santa Fe and Sarasota music festivals.
As a conductor he was the Music Director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1985 and conducted many other orchestras nationally and internationally.
In the field of musical education he was a teacher at Roosevelt University and after his retirement he was on the faculty of Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music. He also served as president of the Italian Brass Week and served on the International Horn Society Advisory Council from 1974 to 1981, receiving a Punton Award in 2009 and was made an Honorary Member of the IHS in 2010. He also published a series of books entitled The Dale Clevenger French Horn Methods.
He died in January 2022 in a hospital near his home in Brescia, Italy, from complications of Waldrenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. He was 81 years old.
Sources:
- https://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical%20music%20news/article/dale-clevenger-the-chicago-symphony-s-legendary-principal-horn-has-died
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/arts/music/dale-clevenger-dead.html
- https://cso.org/experience/article/8174/remembering-dale-clevenger-1940-2022
- https://www.hornsociety.org/ihs-people/honoraries/46-people/punto-recipients/304-dale-clevenger
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Clevenger
- http://www.bruceduffie.com/clevenger.html
- https://slippedisc.com/2022/01/the-unfulfilled-ambition-of-chicagos-horn-star-dale-clevenger/
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11093514/