School Notes: School of Music
March/April 2023

A clarinet celebration

In November, David Shifrin, the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music, organized a concert that featured performances by 30 current students and alumni. The impetus for the event, Shifrin said, was to give current students an opportunity to engage with YSM graduates “who have vibrant careers,” including Seunghee Lee ’92MusM, ’94MusAD, and Romie de Guise-Langlois ’06MusM ’07MusAD, among others. 

“It’s rare to have that many clarinetists together at once,” Nikki Pet ’23MusM said. “It’s incredibly exciting—especially coming out of the pandemic.” Vincent Oneppo ’73MusM, who studied clarinet at YSM before Shifrin joined the faculty in 1987, said, “The atmosphere [Shifrin] creates among his students is really wonderful.” 

In choosing repertoire for the Yale Clarinet Celebration, Shifrin considered “stacks and stacks and stacks of arrangements and original compositions” and said, “I try to cover a lot of bases and a lot of styles and give everybody a chance to shine.” The concert took place in Morse Recital Hall, in Sprague Memorial Hall, as part of the school’s Faculty Artist Series.