Michael Drapkin, Clarinet

Michael Drapkin was a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, as Associate Principal and Bass Clarinet and the New York City Opera Touring Company and Lake George Opera Festival, as Principal Clarinet. He has spent summers playing at Aspen and at Tanglewood as a Berkshire Music Center fellow, and performs regularly with fine chamber music groups.

Mr. Drapkin is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied with acclaimed master clarinet teacher D. Stanley Hasty, toured Japan with the Eastman Wind Ensemble under Donald Hunsberger, and played Principal Clarinet in the Eastman Philharmonia under David Effron. He also studied clarinet with Gary Gray, Charles Bay and Harold Wright.

He has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Portland Symphony, the Long Island Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and with conductors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neville Marriner, Leonard Slatkin, Lucas Foss, Christopher Keene, Klaus Tennstedt, Frederick Fennell, and many more celebrated orchestras and maestros.

Clarinet/Bass Clarinetist Michael Drapkin is considered one of the world's foremost experts on the bass clarinet primarily through his series of orchestral excerpt books, Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass Clarinet, Volumes One, Two, Three, and the upcoming Volume Four which is currently in production. His books have been the gold standard for bass clarinet orchestral study worldwide for the last 25 years, and are now referenced as a source for most bass clarinet orchestra auditions.

Richard MacDowell, Clarinet

Richard MacDowell is Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Texas at Austin. He has studied with Leon Russianoff, Stanley Hasty, Rudolf Kolisch, Peter Hadock, and Robert Marcellus and has performed in chamber, orchestral and solo settings.

As principal clarinetist and soloist, he has performed with the Traverse Symphony in Michigan, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in New York and the Utica, Binghampton, and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. He toured the Canary Islands with the American Opera Orchestra and has performed as a chamber musician throughout the U.S., Hawaii, and Taiwan under the auspices of the Pacific Cultural Foundation. BM, New England Conservatory; MM, Northwestern.

Previous to coming to Texas, Mr. MacDowell was clarinet professor at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the nation's leading performing arts high school.

Mary Schani, Bass Clarinet

Mary Schani is bass clarinetist with the Austin Lyric Opera, and received her musical training at the University of Texas and the University of Michigan.

Her clarinet teachers include Mitchell Lurie, Stanley Hasty, George Silfies and Andrew Crisante. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at the Music Academy of the West, the Sarasota Music Festival, Chautauqua, and the Victoria International Fesitval (Canada).

In addition to performing with the Austin Lyric Opera, Ms. Schani is principal clarinetist with the Mid-Texas Symphony, and is a member of the Austin Chamber Music Center as well as several orchestras around Texas. She maintains an active teaching schedule in the Austin area and is the clarinet instructor at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.